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Congregational Church 



West Newton, Mass. 



One Hundredth Anniversary 



1781-1881 



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Present Church Edifice. Erected 1848. 



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CELEBRATION 



OF THE 



ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE ORGANIZATION 
/ 






OF THE 



jktonfr i|ttr:| t Ifnokt, Saw.' 



AT 



WEST NEWTON 

Tuesday, November 8, 1881 



BOSTON 

BEACON PRESS: THOMAS TODD, PRINTER 

No. 1 Somerset Street 

1882 



I^EIilMINAI^Y. 



At a meeting held by the Second Parish in Newton, on 
the 1 2th of January, 1881, and by the Church, on the 27th of 
January, committees were appointed respectively to arrange 
for the observance of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the 
organization of the Second Church in Newton. 

The following are the committees : 

Committee of tlje Cijurcfn 

Rev. I. N. Tarbox, D. D., Deacon J. L. Clarke, 

And the Pastor. 

Committee of tije l&msi). 

H. A. Barker, B. F. Houghton, 

Deacon Jos. W. Stone, C. F. Eddy, 

J. F. Fuller. 

2>rt Hfnfcitatiotw* 
H. A. Barker, Deacon Jos. W. Stone, 

B. F. Houghton, And the Pastor. 

2Dn Eeception of <Suest0* 

Deacon J. B. Whitmore, C. F. Eddy, 

J. F. Fuller. 

2Dn JFinance* 

Edward Upham, V. E. Carpenter, 

George D. Dix. 



2Dn ffiuisiu 
Rev. I. N. Tarbox, J. E. Trowbridge, 

And the Pastor. 



4 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

SDn Decorations* 
Frank R. Barker, C. E. Thompson. 

2Drt &ert)ice at ti?e (Entertainment* 
J. J. Eddy. 

2Dn (Entertainment* 

Mrs. H. A. Barker, Mrs. L. Hall, 

Mrs. V. E. Carpenter, Mrs. J. M. Hastings, 

Mrs. D. Child, Mrs. B. S. Hatch, 

Mrs. R. Cook, Mrs. B. F. Houghton, 

Mrs. W. Dix, Mrs. C. H. Jenison, 

Mrs. W. H. Folsom, Mrs. H. J. Patrick, 
Mrs. C. S. Phillips. 

The Committee of the Church subsequently reported the 
8th of November — the date of Mr. Greenough's ordination 
— as the most convenient day for the celebration. They 
desired the attendance of several speakers who could not 
return from the. meeting of the American Board at St. Louis 
by the 21st of October, the exact anniversary of the organ- 
ization. 

The Joint Committees of the Church and Parish sent out 
the following invitation to all former and absent living mem- 
bers whose residence was known to them : 






WEST NEWTON, MASS., 



f 



/r-rr <r/r r<- fr/rrf//// rj/>-r/rr/ U //A 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 5 

In response to the above invitation, a goodly number, 
despite the damp, unpleasant weather of the day, returned 
to their former spiritual home. The descendants of the first 
pastor, Rev. William Greenough, manifested a hearty interest 
in the occasion, and were present by representatives from 
several families. Mr. Greenough had nine children, none of 
whom died in infancy, and none of whom are now living. 
Of these, six were married, and of these families four were 
represented on this occasion, as follows : Robert H. Thayer, 
of New York, Mrs. Ellen M. Barbour, of Boston, children of 
the second daughter, Abigail, wife of Robert H. Thayer ; 
William W. Greenough, of Boston (with his son, Malcolm S.), 
only child of the eldest son, William ; Martha E. Thayer, of 
Boston, Frances G. Thayer, of Boston, Mary T., wife of Rev. 
F. R. Abbe, of Boston, Joseph H. Thayer, D. D., of Andover, 
Louisa, wife of Rev. L. Dickerman, of Boston, children of the 
sixth child, Martha Stevens, wife of Joseph H. Thayer, of 
Boston ; John J. Greenough, of Deerfield, Mass. (with his 
daughter, Clara M.), son of the seventh child, Thomas. 

Mr. A. R. Merriam, of Templeton, Mass., who was for a 
time an inmate of Mr. Greenough's family, was also present. 

Among the older members of the church were Mrs. Sarah 
M. U. Smith, Mrs. Paulina (Whiting) Allen, of Medfield, who 
united with the church by profession more than fifty years 
since ; also Mr. Joshua Washburn, of Auburndale, Mr. Nathan 
Crafts and wife, of Reading, Mrs. Sarah (Smith) Stone, all 
of whom became members nearly fifty years since. 

Of former superintendents of the Sabbath school, Mr. G. 
Newcomb, of Westboro, Mass., and Mr. B. F. Whittemore, 
of Boston, and Mr. William Bosworth and Joseph A. Newell, 
were present. 

The audience-room of the church was recognized as much 
changed by the former worshipers, a large organ having been 
placed last year in a recess behind the pulpit, and the walls 
having been frescoed, the wood-work painted, and the floors 



6 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

recarpeted during the past summer. The special decora- 
tions for this occasion were a testimony to the good taste of 
the committee having them in charge. Around the pulpit 
were clustered pots of flowers, ferns, and plants, among 
which the century-plant had its appropriate prominence. In 
front of the pulpit was a floral tablet, with the figures 1781- 
188 1 in colors upon a white ground, while above, upon the 
organ front, rested a beautiful white cross. Upon one side, 
on an easel, was the portrait of Mr. Joseph Jackson, the first 
superintendent of the Sabbath school. The Bible upon the 
pulpit was the first one in use by the church, presented by 
the Second Church in Boston a hundred years ago, and 
printed one hundred and eighty years ago. 

The music of the occasion was in charge of the organist of 
the church, Mr. J. Eliot Trowbridge, and was exceptionally 
fine. In the afternoon one hymn was sung in unison by the 
congregation, after the ancient New England custom, and 
another was lined off by the Senior Deacon Stone. The choir, 
augmented in the evening by representatives from the Au- 
burndale and Eliot Church choirs, rendered the anthems and 
some of the old tunes, such as Majesty, Complaint, and Den- 
mark, with grand effect. 

At the evening session letters were read, in extract, from 
Professors C. E. Stowe, of Hartford, E. A. Park, of Andover, 
W. G. T. Shedd, of New York, Rev. Dr. McLean, of Oak- 
land, Cal., and Mrs. Fannie Boltwood, of Amherst, Mass., a 
niece of Mr. Greenough. 

The following programme, in literal form, was distributed, 
with the souvenir of a picture of the church on a separate 
leaf: 



One Hundredth Anniversary. y 

I78l l88l 

"Remember the days of old ; confider the years of many generations" 
" The LORD our GOD be with us, as He was with our fathers." 



THE 



One Hundredth Anniverfary 



OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 



Second Congregational Church, 



NEWTON. 



West Newton, Mass., 

Tuefday Afternoon and Evening, 

NOV. 8th, 1881. 



Second Congregational Church, Newton. 



Order of Exercifes. 



afternoon, at ttoo o'clock* 



Voluntary. 

DoXOlOgy "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." 

Address of Welcome. 

Rev. I. N. Tarbox, D. D., presiding. 



Reading of the Scriptures. 
Prayer. 



Hymn 1172 



O God of Bethel, by whose hand.' 



Historical Address 



. Rev. H. J. Patrick 



Hymn. 



PSALM XLIV. 

To be sung in unison by the congregation. 



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Our ears have heard our fa - thers tell, and reu' - rent - ly re - cord. 

They con - quer'd not by sword nor strength, the land of thy be - hest ; 



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The won-drous works which tliou hast done, in aid - or time, O Lord: How thou didst cast the Gen-tiles out, 
But by thy hand, thy arm and grace, be-cause thou loud'st them best. Thou art my king, O God, that holp 



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and stroidst them with strong hand. 1'lnnt-ing our fa - thers in their place, and gau'st to them their land. 
Ja-cob in sun-dry wise: Led with thy powY wo throw down such aa did a - gainst us rise. 



Words and Music from Siernhoid &* Hopkins, as sung in /6jo. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 



u Rev. William Greenough" 



Sketch 



Hon. W. W. Greenough 



Address 



Prof. J. H. Thayer, D. D 



Communication . 



Rev. L. Gilbert, D. D 



'Rev. Joseph P. Drummond." 



u Rev. George B. Littler 



Address 



Rev. J. O. Means, D. D 



Hymn 919 



"Give me the wings of faith, to rise." 



The Musical History 



Rev. I. N. Tarbox, D. D, 



Hymn. 



PSALM CXLVII. 



Tune — Dundee. To be lined off after ye ancient cuflom. 



T)RAISE ye the Lord, for good it is 



r 



praife to our G o d to fing : 



Becaufe a pleafant thing is this, 
praife is a comely thing. 

Jehovah doth Jerufalem 
her buildings up repair; 

He doth together gather them 
that Ifrael's outcafls are. 



Unto Jehovah fee that you 
fing out with thankfgiving ; 

Upon this harp our God unto 
fee that you praifes fing. 

Who ouerfpreads with clouds the fky : 

who for the earth below 
Prepareth rain on mountains high, 

who caufeth grafs to grow. 



New England P/alm Book. 



Collation and Reunion. 



IO 



Second Congregational Church, Newton. 



(Opening, at eetjen o'clock* 



Anthem ....... "Sleepers, wake! a voice is calling." 

Prayer. 
The Parish History .... Hon. J. L. Clarke. 

The Sabbath School History . . . p r of. e. Pierce. 

Hymn H58 ...... "Let children hear the mighty deeds." 

Addresses. 

Rev. A. McKenzie, D. D. Rev. Joseph B. Clark. 
Anthem "O sing unto the Lord." 

Addresses. 

Rev. D. L. Furber, D. D. 

Rev. W. Calkins, D. D. 

Rev. C. Cutler. 

Rev. E. F. Howe. 



Anthem 



"Before Jehovah's awful throne." 



Doxology. 
Benediction. 



The Second Church, Newton. 



Original Udentfier& 



Joseph Ward, Dea. 
Jonathan Fuller. 
Josiah Fuller. 
Joseph Adams, Dea. 
Joseph Jackson, Dea. 
Samuel Woodward. 



Pastors. 



Rev. William Greenough 

Rev. Lyman Gilbert, D . D . 

Rev. Joseph P . Drunimond' 

Rev. George B. Little . . 

Rev. Henry J. Patrick . . 



Jonathan Williams 
Joshua Jackson. 
Samuel Jackson. 
Samuel Crafts. 
Josiah Fuller, Jr. 
Joseph Adams, Jr. 



1 7 S 1 - 1 8 3 1 . 
1828-1856, 

1857-1860. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 1 1 

The order of exercises was carried out, with the exception 
that the Parish History was read in the afternoon, and the 
Musical History and Dr. Means's Address were in the even- 
ing. The reading of the Scriptures at the afternoon session 
was by the pastor, and the prayer was offered by Rev. G. G. 
Phipps, of Newton Highlands. At the evening session Rev. 
B. M. Fullerton, of Waltham, led in prayer. Between the 
sessions a bountiful collation was served by the ladies in the 
vestries, which were well filled ; and it was evident that the 
hour of reunion was the most enjoyable part of the day — 
the meeting of old friends, and the reviving of former scenes. 
The exercises were closed, a little before ten, with the Bene- 
diction, pronounced by Rev. Dr. Furber. 

Dr. Tarbox, the presiding officer, gave the following brief 
Address of Welcome. 



flDDi^sss of Welcome. 



This church, which is commonly spoken of among us as 
the Congregational Church of West Newton, was known, of 
old, as the Second Congregational Church of Newton. It 
still bears this as its legal name and title. This church has 
lived on, until at length it has filled out a full century of 
existence. We are gathered here today to celebrate this 
happy event ; and we do most gladly welcome all our friends 
who have come hither from many places and from divers 
pursuits to share with us in these "pleasures of memory." 
Various are the ties of interest, kindred, and affection by 
which you are drawn here today, and without your presence 
and participation we could not keep, in a fit and becoming 
manner, this our centennial festival. 

. The associations which cluster around an ancient church 
are of a character the most sacred and tender. For the life 
that now is, and, in a far higher sense, for that life which is to 
come, every such record is rich in holy memories. The intel- 
lectual, moral, and spiritual life of a Christian community 
centers naturally around its ancient sanctuary, and, I doubt 
not, this day, as the history of this church shall be recounted, 
busy thoughts will be stirring within you, reviving the scenes 
of the past, and calling up the faces of the living and absent 
ones, and the faces of the sainted dead. 

A church which has passed through one hundred years of 
storm and sunshine has reached an age that may at least be 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 13 

called dignified and respectable. We cannot forget, however, 
that there are five churches in New England which have 
already celebrated their two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. 
These are : the Old Mother Church at Plymouth ; the First 
Church in Salem, planted in 1629; the Warham and Maver- 
ick Church, organized in England, which came over in 1630, 
and first sat down at Dorchester, removing as a church six 
years later to Windsor, Conn. ; the First Church in Boston 
(now Dr. Rufus Ellis's) ; and the First Church of Watertown. 
There are not far from one hundred and thirty other New 
England Congregational churches which have already kept or 
have been entitled to keep their two hundredth anniversary, 
and a vastly larger number which have reached their one hun- 
dred and fiftieth birth-day. In the presence of so many elder 
sisters we would be duly modest and humble, and yet venture 
to take our place in this historical and honorable procession. 

But I will not detain you longer. In the exercises before 
us, for the afternoon and evening, there will be enough, I 
trust, thoroughly to occupy your minds and hearts, and we 
will pass at once to the unfolding of our programme. 



The following were the passages of Scripture read : 

Deuteronomy viii: 1-10. 

All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, 
that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord 
sware unto your fathers. 

And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 
forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what 
was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. 

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, 
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know ; that he might make thee 
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth 
out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. 

Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these 
forty years. 

Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so 
the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. 



14 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk 
in his ways, and to fear him. 

For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of 
water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; 

A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates ; a 
land of oil olive, and honey ; 

A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack 
any thing in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest 
dig brass. 

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God 
for the good land which he hath given thee. 

Psalm lxxviii : 1-7. 

Give ear, O my people, to my law : incline your ears to the words of my 
mouth. 

I will open my mouth in a parable : I will utter dark sayings of old : 

Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. 

We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to 
come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he 
hath done. 

For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, 
which he commanded our forefathers, that they should make them known to 
their children : 

That the generation to come might know them, even the children which 
should be born ; who should arise and declare them to their children : 

That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but 
keep his commandments. 



Fmsto^igal Discourse. 

.-■■ 



t' ' a. ' 




A century in the life of a church is a period to be noted 
in its passing. The world's age is told by centuries. Coming 
down from the broad sweep of history to only one out of 
nearly sixty centuries, and to the limit of a local church, it 
might seem hardly worth the notice, yet for ourselves it is full 
of meaning. It covers more than three generations of men 
who have lived and labored here. It is the story of their 
spiritual life. It is the record of what is most worthy of 
preservation in this community. 

If we needed any scriptural warrant for such review, we 
might find it in the farewell words of Moses to his people, in 
the 7th verse of the 3 2d chapter of Deuteronomy: 

"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many 
generations : ask thy father, and he will shew thee ; thy elders, 
and they will tell thee!' 

And the petition which such review should prompt was in 
the prayer of Solomon, in his memory of Moses and his people, 
found in the 1st Book of Kings, 8th chapter, verses 57, 58 : 

" The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers : 
let him never leave nor forsake us : that he may incline our 
hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his com- 
mandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he 
commanded our fathers!' 

One hundred years ago today, a notable scene took place in 
a small, plain structure a few rods west of the house in which 



1 6 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

we are now assembled. It was the ordination of a young 
man, twenty-five years of age, to the gospel ministry, and his 
installation as pastor over this church. Only a small band of 
Christian disciples gave him welcome, and they came from a 
sparsely settled hamlet containing scarcely more than a dozen 
houses. But the occasion was of great interest to the actors, 
and fraught with influences which we can far better estimate 
in the light of today. That little company had formed them- 
selves into a church but a few days beforehand, previously to 
that, had with perfect unanimity made choice of Mr. William 
Greenough, of Boston, to be their "public teacher of religion." 

The sermon at his ordination was by his own pastor, Rev. 
Dr. Lathrop ; and we may infer the impressivene^s of the 
occasion by the added comment in the Boston Independent 
Chronicle, reporting the services : "A remarkable decency and 
good order were preserved thro the whole solemnity." J 

As that event was the virtual beginning of this history, we 
naturally go back and trace the steps which led to the birth 
and life of this church. It is a regret and a surprise at once 
that this is the first occasion upon which this history has been 
publicly commemorated, and that no stores are gathered to our 
hand by any previous gleaners in this field for this purpose. 

When we remember that this church was organized only 
two days after the surrender of Cornwallis — the event which 
closed the war of the Revolution — it is by no means difficult 
to understand the condition of our country at that time. 
There was a spiritual barrenness which would result from 
the absorption of all interests in one — the struggle for life 
and liberty. There was an impoverishment which the exhaus- 
tion from a long seven years' war would bring to a newly 
settled country. There was a general demoralization which 
the influence of the war had brought upon the whole people, 
breaking down the restraints of the Sabbath and the sanctu- 
ary, introducing the skepticism of the Continent through the 

1 See Appendix A. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. if 

foreign importations to our army, effacing the strong Puritan 
stamp which our good old New England colony had put on 
its communities. It was not a hopeful time for the beginning 
of a spiritual enterprise, and yet, to the credit of the original 
founders, it was in the midst of all these discouragements 
they moved for the organization of this church. 

The relative strength of the denominations at that time in 
this State may be inferred from the number of churches as 
thus reported : l Roman Catholics, I ; Universalists, 3 ; Quak- 
ers, 6 ; Episcopalians, 1 1 ; Baptists, 68 ; Congregationalists, 
330. Not till the next year do we get the first glimpse of 
Unitarianism in its dawn at King's Chapel, under the minis- 
try of Rev. James Freeman, then a resident of Newton. 
The Methodists do not appear till nine years afterward — - 
in 1790. 

This church was among the first of twenty-four organized in 
the decade from 1780 to 1790 within the bounds of the State. 

Our attention is arrested at the order in which this history 
begins — the reverse to that which is common in our day. 
The first thing was a house, then a parish, then a pastor elect, 
and last a church. 

The town had been settled more than one hundred years. 
One church in the east part had gathered to itself the scat- 
tered dwellers, and had sufficed for the whole town, until the 
community in the west district, increasing in numbers, moved, 
in the year 1760, for their own convenience, by the appoint- 
ment of a committee, to collect funds and commence building 
a meeting-house. This committee were Thomas Miller, inn- 
holder, Jonathan Williams, yeoman, Samuel Hastings, tanner, 
who purchased for £2 Ss. eight rods of land, on which, in 
1764, a house was erected. A minister was hired, to keep 
school in the winter and preach on the Sabbath. 

Then followed the struggle for a separate existence which 
extended through several years. Every effort to secure aid 

1 Clark's Historical Sketch, p. 218. 



1 8 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

from the town to support preaching was unavailing. The 
petitioners were resisted by their neighbors in the East Parish, 
who so loved them they could not bear the thought of separation, 
and the loss of so much support. But, though refused year 
after year, the persistent and earnest spirit of these men was 
revealed in their unyielding demands, and the unusual course 
of even petitioning the legislature to grant money from the 
town treasury to support preaching. 

Their petition to be set off as an independent parish was 
granted in 1778. Their object in this movement was, in the 
language of the petitioners, "for the greater convenience of 
attending the public worship of God, and the promotion of 
the Christian religion." 

That these founders had worldly wisdom as well as spiritual 
life is very evident from a vote, soon after incorporation, " to give 
^18 a Sabbath for preaching, if .not to be obtained cheaper." 
The apparent generosity of so large a sum for a single Sab- 
bath's service abates at once in the remembrance of a dete- 
riorated currency, which reveals itself in a subsequent change 
on the record, where from appropriations as high as ,£4,000 
for the year we find in place thereof ,£100, with the signifi- 
cant words "new emission" following. 1 It was the day of 
which our oldest citizen 2 tells us that his father enjoyed the 
luxury of a bandana handkerchief at the expense of a hun- 
dred dollars ; a day of more seeming than reality to the 
salaries of ministers. 

It was in the month of March, 1781, that the parish moved 
in the matter of a pastor, and by the record of even the 
names of the voters made choice unanimously of Mr. Green- 
ough. 3 

The next step was a formal organization of the church on 
the 2 1 st of October, in which twelve persons, all males, were 
united, all of whom, with a single exception, were from the 
First Church. 4 At the public service of recognition, Rev. 

1 Sec Appendix B. -" Mr. Seth Davis. 

3 See Appendix C. 4 Sec Appendix D, 



One -Hundredth Anniversary. 19 

Joseph Jackson, of Brookline, preached the sermon. These 
persons gave assent to the covenant, voted themselves a Con- 
gregational Church according to the Cambridge Platform, and 
declared their belief of the general or leading doctrines of 
the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. 

The instrument which bound them together, and which 
made them a church of Christ, is put on record as follows : 

The Covenant which the Church of Christ in the West Parish in Newton 
entered into in order to impress their minds with a due sense of the obligations 
they laid themselves under to God and to one another to walk as becometh 
saints : 

We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, apprehending ourselves called of 
God to join together in church and communion, and to seek the settlement of 
the gospel institutions among us, acknowledging our unworthiness of such a 
privilege, and sensible of our inability to keep covenant with God without the 
assistance of divine grace, do covenant as follows, viz. : 

1st. We agree to walk together as a particular Church of Christ, according to 
all those holy rules prescribed in the gospel to such a society, so far as God 
hath or shall reveal his will to us in this respect. 

2d. We solemnly devote ourselves to the only true God and to the Lord Jesus 
Christ our Saviour, the High Priest, Prophet, and King of his Church, submit- 
ting ourselves to the conduct of his Holy Spirit, and relying on Christ Jesus 
alone for pardon, grace, and glory; 

3d. We do likewise give ourselves one to another in the Lord, resolving by 
his help to cleave to each other as fellow-members of one body, promising in 
brotherly love to watch over one another for mutual edification and growth in 
grace, engaging to submit ourselves to the discipline of Christ in his Church, 
and to attend all the ordinances commanded by our Saviour to be observed by 
his people. 

4th. We acknowledge our children to be included with us in the covenant of 
grace, and, blessing God for such a favor, do promise to bring them up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

5th. We do also acknowledge and promise to preserve communion with the 
faithful churches of Christ, for the giving and receiving mutual counsel and 
assistance in all cases wherein it shall be needful. 

Finally, we ascribe glory to the Lord our God, who is a faithful God, keeping 
covenant and mercy with his people forever, but confessing that we are sinful, 
liable many ways to break our covenant with him ; therefore, that we may 
observe and keep these and all other covenant duties required of us in God's 
word, we desire to deny ourselves, and to depend on the grace of God in Christ 
Jesus for the assistance of his Holy Spirit to enable us hereunto, and wherein 
we fail we desire to wait on him for pardon, humbly beseeching the Lord to own 
us as a Church of Christ, to dwell in the midst of us and bless us. 



20 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

This was signed by Mr. Greenough and thirteen members 
already admitted. 1 

The principles of the organization were laid down in the 
following votes : 

i. That in order to entitle any person to either of the ordinances of the 
Christian Church, viz., of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, he shall make a 
public profession of religion and dedication of himself to God, and that every 
person so doing shall be entitled to both ordinances, and may come to them 
without making any other profession of his faith and belief. 

2. That before any person is admitted as a member of this church, his desire 
shall be made known in public by our reverend pastor a fortnight before his 
admission, particular cases excepted. 

3. That when a person is admitted as a member of this church, it shall be 
at his option whether he will be admitted before the congregation or before the 
church only. 

4. That when any person is admitted as a member of this church, there shall 
be a vote taken of the members present. 

5. That every person shall be considered as a member of this church who 
shall have a major part of the votes for him. 

Following these votes was the appointment of a committee 
"to join with the pastor to form a covenant for persons to 
consent to when admitted members of this church." 2 

Thus came into being this church of Christ which has just 
completed its first century. The timbers in the foundation 
were sound. One is impressed with the compact vitality 
which was put into the document which was unanimously 
adopted to be used in the admission of members by con- 
fession. It was a Covenant, but included a Creed with no 
uncertain statement of evangelical truth. 3 

The early days of the church were marked with pleasant 
tokens of recognition in gifts from sister churches and indi- 
viduals. 

The Second Church of Boston, of which Mr. Greenough 
had been a member, sent the pulpit Bible which is used on this 
occasion ; and his father, Thomas Greenough, a deacon of 
that church, presented a christening basin, two flagons, and 
two dishes for the communion service. The mother church, 

1 See Appendix E. 2 See Appendix F. 3 See Appendix G. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 21 

in response to a request for a portion of the communion 
furniture, "after some conversation," sent four pewter tank- 
ards and one pewter dish. 

It may be taken as evidence of the progressive spirit of the 
church, that an early vote is on the record, " that a portion of 
the Scriptures be read in public on each part of the Lord's 
day." In the reaction from the formalism of the English 
Church, and the aversion of our fathers to mere ceremony, 
this part of the service had fallen into disuse. The pulpit 
Bible received as a present was accompanied with the request 
which was embodied in the vote. 

The first event of special note was the ordination of Mr. 
Greenough to which we have referred, of which this day is 
the One Hundredth Anniversary, and which we have chosen 
for our commemorative service, for the greater convenience 
of those who will speak to us. 

Mr. Greenough was a native of Boston, a graduate of Yale 
College, and, if the conjecture of Dr. Jenks be correct, a stu- 
dent in theology with his kinsman, the learned Dr. Chauncy. 
He made a public profession of his faith in 1799, only two 
years before ordination, and removed his relation to this 
church four days before he became its pastor. 1 

On the 1 6th of November the original membership was 
increased by the addition of thirteen from the First Church, 
all females ; making the whole number twenty-seven, includ- 
ing two received on the 4th of November. In December 
Mr. Joseph Ward and Mr. Joseph Jackson were chosen dea- 
cons, and the church started in the new year fully officered. 

1 Since this discourse was delivered, a letter from Mr. Robert Thayer, of New- 
York, states that Mr. Greenough received a call from the New South Church 
in Boston before that received from the Second Church in Newton, but as 
at that time his lungs were not strong, his family physician advised his taking a 
country and not a city parish. Mr. Thayer received this fact from his mother, 
Mr. Greenough's second child. It is probable that this was an informal call, as 
no formal call is to be found on the records of that church. This would explain 
the good fortune of this church in obtaining such a pastor. 



22 Second Congregational Church, Neivton. 

Few things worthy of note are found in the scanty rec- 
ords of the years following the settlement of Mr. Greenough. 
The growth was very gradual. There were periods of decline. 
The yearning of the pastor's heart over the spiritual welfare' 
of the church is frequently betrayed in the record of some 
special service by his suggestion. The spirit of these occa- 
sions may be seen in the following entry, in 1811, which may 
serve as an illustration of all the others : " A long time having 
elapsed since any additions had been made to the church, 
and the number of communicants being diminished by the 
decease of some and the removal of others out of the society, 
the church agreed to meet on the 26th of April. The meet- 
ing was opened with singing a hymn. I then prayed, and 
read the covenant of the church, made observation on some 
clauses which appear calculated to affect our minds with a 
sense of our obligation to walk as becometh saints. After 
this I read the addresses to the seven churches of Asia 
recorded in the 2d and 3d chapters of Revelation, made 
remarks on some passages, sang a hymn, and closed with 
prayer. The minds of the members were much solemnized, 
and I hope, by God's blessing, the meeting was rendered 
beneficial to some." 

It is significant that we find increased accessions to the 
church in the months of June and July following, and the 
same is true of many other seasons of interest. They fol- 
lowed these special occasions for prayer and renewal of cov- 
enant, and we inevitably associate them in their relation to 
each other. 

The life of the good pastor was identified with the history 
of this church through the first half century; and though his 
descendants are with us today to speak of his character, it 
falls within the scope of this discourse to reproduce as real 
a picture of the man, in his relation to this church as pastor 
and preacher, as possible. 

Fortunately there survive today among us a number of 
those who, though children then, were impressed by the life 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 23 

and service of this good man. Of our present membership, 
however, only two x remain with us who united under the 
ministry of Mr. Greenough, and only one of these 2 was 
admitted before he received a colleague. By request, this 
member of our church has contributed reminiscences of un- 
usual personal interest, from which we make a few brief 
extracts. Referring to Mr. Greenough, she writes : 

" It seemed as though he felt responsible for the welfare of 
all his people. He used to tell us we ought to feel as much 
interest in every good object as though its prosperity rested 
wholly upon us. In his parochial calls he endeavored to con- 
verse personally with each member, and upon the young he 
impressed the beauty as well as the importance of an upright 
life. He once said 'there were many things which he 
regretted, but never that he gave his heart to his Saviour at 
twelve years of age.' 

" His preaching was earnest, plain, searching, and quite 
emotional, claiming the closest attention. 

"About the year 1822 there was an attempt to introduce 
Universalist preaching. Meetings were occasionally held at 
the school-house, with preachers from Boston. Mr. Greenough 
was thoroughly aroused, and met the effort by occupying the 
place himself on intermediate evenings. He was becoming 
feeble, and did not feel equal to the emergency, and suggested 
to the society the need of an assistant for a time. A young 
man, Mr. Barber, was. secured, and through his efforts there 
succeeded a spirit of religious inquiry and a season of unusual 
interest. 

" His last sickness was not long, though he had been feeble 
four or five years. He had been accustomed to say, quaintly, 
'All my life* long I have been in bondage, from fear of dogs 
and death;' but he sent a message to the writer by her 
mother, who sat by his bedside during the last hours : ' Tell 
Sarah the fear of death is all gone.' " 

1 Mrs. Sarah M. U. Smith, Mrs. Mary Fuller Dix. 

2 Mrs. Smith. 



24 Seco7td Congregational Church, Newton. 

Father Greenough was one whom his relatives loved to 
visit, and a surviving niece I recalls a stay of six months in 
his family in 1824, and adds some colors to this portrait of the 
pastor. She writes : " Would that I could give you a picture 
of that peaceful home, and of that good man as he went out 
and in among a people who reverenced him. He was a pat- 
tern in everything, true and upright, free from deceit, and full 
of good works. I remember his sermons with pleasure. 
There was so much sincerity in all he said. His style was 
chaste and pure. He meddled not with doctrines which puz- 
zled wiser men than he to reconcile. I well recall reading to 
him a volume of Emmons's Sermons, published that winter, 
and as I proceeded with those doctrines which he advanced, 
that ' God was the author of sin,' dear uncle would start, and 
say, ' Oh, I can't receive that, I can't receive that ; ' and then 
he would add, ' Your father 2 could take it all in. Brother 
Harding, 3 he can see through it ; it is all clear to him.' When 
speaking of the conversions attended with such deep convic- 
tions, he said, ' I have sometimes felt anxious because I have 
never experienced such deep convictions, but I can never 
recall a time when I had not the fear of God in my heart.' ' 

Perhaps the best summary of his character was given by 
Rev. Dr. Jenks, of Boston, who first saw the light in this 
parish, and whose boyhood and youth were influenced by Mr. 
Greenough's ministry, and who was encouraged by him to 
attempt a liberal education. 

In his contribution to Dr. Sprague's Annals of the American 
Pulpit he gives the following tribute : 

"'An Israelite in whom is no guile ' was the title justly 
granted to him by all who knew him. Though of tender 
and eEective sympathy, and ever ready to serve a friend, 
yet his manner was rather of the curt, blunt character than of 
the measured, guarded, circumspect demeanor and converse 

1 Mrs. Fanny H. Boltwood, of Amherst, Mass. 

2 Rev. Mase Shepard, of Little Compton, R. I. 

3 Rev. SewaU Harding, of Waltham, Mass. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 25 

of the wary, discreet, polished clergyman and scholar. Not 
that anything clownish or vulgar attached to him. Far from 
it. But his convictions were deep and thorough; his rever- 
ence for God and his word, his Sabbath and Ordinances, was 
sincere ; his hatred of sin and detestation of it in all its forms, 
pointed and honest ; his deportment fearless, independent, 
and strictly conscientious, and in the simplicity and integrity 
of his heart he manifested these qualities with great uniform- 
ity and consistency, seeming to wonder at the cunning, du- 
plicity, hypocrisy, and selfishness which he at times detected 
in others, but not hesitating to reprove it, with humanity and 
Christian compassion indeed, but with marked decision and 
abhorrence. The cordiality of his friendships was calculated 
to win entire confidence. In his religious views he was a 
Calvinist of the old school, and he adhered to this system with 
an unyielding tenacity. He was also a believer in revivals. His 
sermons were distinguished for simplicity, sound, practical 
sense, and a clear exhibition of his own well-defined views of 
evangelical truth. In fact, these were the characteristics of 
the man. He excelled in the exercise of a ripe, sedate, and 
almost unerring judgment, and that not only in his capacity 
as a minister, but in his conduct as a man, a citizen, a father, 
counselor, and friend." 

Such was Mr. Greenough, as pictured by those who knew 
him personally. When we add the impressiveness of his 
bodily presence, with a traditional resemblance to John Wes- 
ley, and think of the tall, strong man moving about among his 
people, always appearing in the pulpit with gown and bands, 
we cannot wonder at the indelible impress he made upon 
the community in an extended ministry of half a century. 
The house in which he lived so long, on the Lower Falls 
road, was burned to ashes years ago; but the lilac bushes 
which still mark on either side the walk to the old front door, 
and the stately elms upon the street before the old founda- 
tions, remind us today of the perpetuated influence of the 



26 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

former dweller there, typified in the annual spring fragrance 
of the flowers and the summer shade of the trees. 

He molded his people. His life was their life, and his 
interests were their interests. 

In the great doctrinal controversy which arose during the 
latter half of his ministry, we find no wavering in the forces 
here marshaled. The records give no hint of the conflict 
then raging in and around Boston. The long, painful trials, 
the personal defections, which absorb so large a part of the 
records of other churches through these years, are not found 
here. The church stood 'firm on its foundations. He held 
them, by his declared convictions and his positive defense of 
the truth ; and the only sign of the controversy may be a 
hint in a more distinctly formulated creed which was adopted 
in 1829. 

While Mr. Greenough was conservative, it cannot be said 
that he was not progressive. He would follow a safe leader- 
ship, and fall in with the suggestions of parishioners as to new 
things which looked to the better condition of the church. 
His lack of sympathy with the Sabbath school in its starting 
was due to his preference for and attachment to the more 
direct catechetical instruction to which he held the children, 
monthly ; but the first Superintendent, Mr. Joseph Jackson, 
was an intimate friend and frequent visitor at Mr. Greenough's 
house, and ere long we find the pastor giving countenance to 
the new enterprise. 

It was not far from this time (18 19) that the Monthly 
Concert of Prayer for Missions was established, on the first 
Monday afternoon of each month. This, too, was the sug- 
gestion of a parishioner, Mr. Lewis Hawes, a brother of Dr. 
Hawes, of Hartford, in whose church it had been a success. 

In the year 1826 a Foreign Missionary Society, auxiliary to 
the American Board, was organized, with Mr. Greenough as 
President; 1 but its life was short, doubtless on account of the 

1 See Appendix H. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 2J 

experiment which is quite as fatal in our time — the change 
in the appropriation of its funds to home objects. 

Only three months after Mr. Greenough became pastor of 
this church, Mr. Jonathan Homer was ordained over the 
mother church, and they became intimate and life-long friends. 
This fellowship was doubtless influential in promoting more 
pleasant relations between the two parishes. It is frankly to 
be confessed that the soreness from the first separation 
betrays itself in the repeated conferences necessary about 
the common ministerial wood lot, and in the difficulty of estab- 
lishing the line of division between the two parishes. 

But these matters were at length all settled peaceably, and 
these two pastors lived on side by side through all the years 
of the half century, with no ripple of disturbance, Mr. 
Greenough anticipating Mr. Homer by twelve years in his 
death. These men were as different as men could be, and 
hence were the stronger friends. Mr. Homer was the greater 
scholar, with many eccentricities. He had his. hobbies, while 
Mr. Greenough had the more rounded, complete character, 
with less distinction for scholarship and special studies, but 
greater fixedness of belief. Indeed, it has been more than 
hinted that the strong bonds of Mr. Greenough's influence 
held Dr. Homer from breaking away entirely in the great 
doctrinal defection of those days. 

It was fortunate for this church, in its poverty, that their 
first pastor was a man not dependent upon them for support. 
His generosity was manifest in gifts to the parish ; so that, 
near the close of his ministry, he was heard to say that he 
"• had returned more than he had received." For-many years 
his salary was ;£8o and fifteen cords of wood, equivalent to 
$266.66. He kept open house, and greatly enjoyed the privi- 
leges of hospitality and fellowship. That his people appreci- 
ated this generosity is very manifest, from a formal expression 
of their gratitude which, in 1829, through a committee, they 
extended to him, after a special gift from him. l 

1 See Appendix K. 



28 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

During his ministry the church building was changed, so 
as to be really a type of the growth of the church. At 
first there were pews erected only for its necessities, the other 
ground remaining unoccupied. From time to time we find 
the vote, " that such a man is hereby considered a meet person 
to improve such a pew in the pew spots." So it grew, till it 
was filled. A porch was added in 1791. In 18 12 it was 
enlarged, and rededicated on Thanksgiving Day. In 1828 
the first sound of a church bell was heard in this community, 
calling the people to the ordination of a new pastor. The 
bell was a purchase from the town of Concord, to whom it 
had been given by an English lady, and on its metal, in relief, 
was the couplet : 

" I to the church the living call, 
I to the grave do summon all." 

Again, in 183 1, the church building was extensively re- 
paired, but not soon enough to be enjoyed by the aged pastor. 
It was in readiness in time only for his funeral. In the year 
1827 Mr. Greenough sent in to the parish the proposition for 
a colleague, and it was accepted. He became an example in 
the gracefulness of his retirement, proposing to retain his 
connection with the church, to preach as often as his health 
and convenience would permit, and to relinquish his salary 
from the ordination of his colleague, who was to be a man 
" agreeable to him." J 

Following shortly after was a call to Mr. Asahel Bigelozv, 
which was declined. Six months later — in May, 1828 — Mr. 
Lyman Gilbert was unanimously called, and on the 2d of 
July was ordained, Dr. Fay, of Charlestown, preaching the 
sermon, and the senior pastor giving the charge to his younger 
brother. 2 Mr. Gilbert was born in Brandon, Vt, in 1798, and 
hence was thirty years of age at his ordination. He was a 
graduate of Middlebury College and Andover Theological 
Seminary, and came to Newton for his first settlement. 

1 See Appendix J. 2 See Appendix O. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 29 

It was a favorable time for the coming of a colleague. The 
church had received a spiritual blessing the year before, and 
a large accession to its strength, in the addition of thirty 
members to its roll, by profession of faith. The hands of the 
revered though enfeebled pastor were strengthened by his 
young colleague, who afterward testified that they " lived and 
labored together in all harmony, mutual confidence, and love, 
to the end of their earthly connection." This occurred in a 
little more than three years, when Mr. Greenough had just 
terminated the fiftieth year of his ministry. It is a coinci- 
dence that this week brings us the literal anniversaries of 
his death and burial, both in date and day of the week. 
Fifty years ago on Thursday, the 10th, he died, at 4 p. m., and 
on Saturday, the 12th, he was laid to his rest. At the funeral 
service, by his request, no sermon was preached ; Rev. Dr. 
Jenks made an address, and Dr. Homer led in prayer. The 
next day, the Sabbath, Mr. Gilbert preached a funeral dis- 
course, from the words, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is 
the death of his saints." 

He rests in the old burying-ground, amid the graves of the 
people to whom he ministered ; and the most appropriate 
truth suggested by this day's review of his life is found upon 
the head-stone of his grave: "The memory of the just is 
blessed." 

But should we stop with the mere relations of Mr. Green- 
ough to this church, the most important chapter of his life 
would remain unwritten. He was so much of a man that he 
could not be confined in his influence to this small parish, nor 
limited to the time of his own ministry. He was a power in 
all the surrounding region, and he started streams of influ- 
ence which, multiplying today beyond all our estimate or even 
conception, are easily traceable to him as their source. 

I may be pardoned for this divergence, for it comes indi- 
rectly from his position as pastor of this church, and his 
regard for the young while in his ministry here. He does not 
appear to have been one of those terrible ministers of former 



30 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

days so often pictured, from whom, at his approach, the 
children ran away, and in whose presence they stood in mute 
and fearful awe. His cordiality won their confidence. Though 
a man of dignity, he was more loved than feared. 

This molding influence extended through youth as well 
as childhood, and by his suggestion and encouragement young 
men attempted a liberal education, and at last found them- 
selves in the ministry, and some of them in the professor's 
chairs of colleges and theological seminaries. 

If we follow the roll of church membership through the 
years of his ministry, we find several suggestive instances of 
this influence. The first name in these illustrations which 
arrests us is that of Samuel Jenks, who united with the 
church only the year after its organization. It was his son 
William who was born here, and spent his youth under the 
ministry of Mr. Greenough, and who in his advanced life, 
when he had become Rev. William yenks, D.D., pastor in 
Boston, and editor of the Comprehensive Commentary, looked 
back to his first pastor, and called him, significantly, " the 
kind and effective patron of my early studies." 

Following down but four years, we are stopped by the name 
of Thomas Park, and a few years later by the names of Calvin 
and Nathan Park. 

Thomas Park became a professor in Columbia College, 
S. C, and remained in its chair for twenty years, receiving 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was more dis- 
tinguished for moral excellence than for genius. 

Calvin Park was a distinguished professor in Brown Uni- 
versity for twenty-five years, an accomplished scholar, a highly 
esteemed instructor, and an impressive preacher. 

Nathan Park remained here at home with his father, from 
whom he was named. He was a great friend of Mr. Green- 
ough, a prominent member of this church, and so marked for 
his consistent life as to gain the title of " Saint." 

These men have all passed away ; but a descendant, more 
distinguished than they all, is with us, and his testimony, 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 31 

written years ago, is of special interest today. Professor E. 
A. Park, of Andover, writes as follows: "My uncle, Dr. 
Thomas Park, who was a remarkably exemplary Christian, 
and my father, Calvin Park, were urged to pursue a literary 
course by Mr. Greenough. My father would not probably 
have passed through college if Mr. Greenough had not aided 
him. His influence upon the South Carolina professor was 
as great as on my father. Mr. Greenough never did anything 
for me personally. I was quite a boy when he was wont to 
come to my father's house. I remember him well. He was 
a benevolent man, and, though not a great man, he was good, 
and I was always delighted to see him when I was a boy, 
because he was so kind. He gave a large number of 'fo'pence- 
happenies.' " 

But though not doing anything " personally " for him, yet 
we may well ask, where would have been our distinguished 
and beloved Andover professor, had not " bis father passed 
through college ? " So that our indebtedness in part for the 
untold influence which has proceeded from that lecture-room 
on Andover Hill is easily traced by direct line, with only a 
single intermediate link, to the West Newton pastor. 

Following still our catalogue, we come, in the year 1803, to 
the name of Marshall Shedd, who united with the church 
through the instrumentality of Mr. Greenough, and by his 
encouragement was helped forward to the Christian ministry. 
He became pastor of the church at Acton, Mass. At his ordi- 
nation Mr. Greenough preached the sermon, and Dr. Homer 
delivered the charge. 

Mr. Shedd thought so much of his pastor as to name a son 
William Greenough ; and that son, W. G. T. Shedd, true to 
these same influences, became a distinguished professor at 
Andover, and is now a professor in the Union Theological 
Seminary at New York, and his testimony is also written, as 
follows : 

" From my father and mother, and maternal grandfather 
Thayer, I early learned to venerate the memory of Mr. 



32 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

Greenough, and have never forgotten the lesson. The first 
two initials of my long name stand for William Greenough. I 
saw him upon his death-bed (having accompanied my grand- 
father in his farewell visit to his old and tried friend), and 
remember his words of Christian counsel, and keep the Bible 
which he then gave me. Without the faithful pastoral care 
and assistance of Mr. Greenough my father would not have 
entered the ministry; and if my father had not been an edu- 
cated man and a minister, it is very possible I should not 
have been one." 

Nor is the list complete, though now we turn from the cata- 
logue of the church to find the same influence in a neighbor- 
ing town, and still another Andover professor giving testimony 
— Calvin E. Stowe. He writes : " Father Greenough' s first 
wife was the daughter of Rev. Mr. Badger, of Natick, my 
native town, and he often visited there. He was the favorite 
preacher of all who loved plain evangelical truth, and the 
Sundays when he preached were gala days for us. When my 
mind was first seriously turned toward the ministry, — I, a 
poor orphan boy, without money or patronage — a good 
maiden aunt of mine took me over to Mr. Badger's, one 
Sunday evening, to see Mr. Greenough and tell him my story. 
The good old man took me by both hands, with the utmost 
cordiality. ' Poor, are you ? ' said he. ' Well, the Lord is 
rich. Begin, and he will help you on.' He invited me to his 
house to talk matters over, and, for my encouragement, told 
me about Marshall Shedd, a poor little white-haired boy, sit- 
ting in the gallery so serious and so attentive that he inquired 
him out, learned his aspirations, and gave him a start, as he 
did to me." 

To this interesting succession of witnesses Andover must 
add still another of its professors, who will give his testimony 
today — not in writing, but by his presence and voice — and 
whose line of descent is direct from the good man whom we 
commemorate, whose daughter was the mother of Professor 
J. Henry Thayer. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 33 

It is time for us to stay in our walk by these streams, and 
to conceive, if possible, of the amount of influence which has 
flowed from the common source. Let us think of this com- 
pany of theological professors, covering in their instructions 
the great departments of Biblical interpretation and theology, 
history and homiletics, and of the classes of young men who 
have passed out from their tuition year after year, to bear the 
impress received from them to all parts of the world, and 
extend the truth by the inspiration of their teachings, and 
there may break in upon us a faint conception of the power 
of a single good man as a fountain of influence, as starting 
streams that never cease flowing and multiplying. This con- 
ception is enlarged in the thought of the unseen rivulets, not 
traceable, but as full of blessing, in all their intricate ramify- 
ings, as those we see and follow. Surely we may deem this 
sacred ground at this hour. The good man is living today ; 
" Though dead, he yet speaketh." He is still preaching, 
through his spiritual descendants, and there is no limit in 
time or place to the influence of his instructions which we 
can mark. Here is his handwriting in these church records 
— sixty solid pages, finely written, without a break. The 
hand that wrote has long since crumbled to dust, but the real 
man in his spiritual power passes before us, and moves among 
us, in the review of this day. 

Now turning back to this church, in its history we find the 
event of Mr. Greenough's death deepening a feeling of rising 
religious interest. As was the custom of those times, a " four 
days' meeting " x had been proposed, and, in preparation for it, 
a day of fasting and prayer was observed while Mr. Greenough 
was upon his sick-bed. 

In a little more than a month after his death this protracted 
meeting was held, and it resulted in a large accession to the 
church. Mr. Gilbert commenced his sole pastorate under 
these most encouraging circumstances. The years that fol- 

1 See Appendix I. 



34 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

lowed were marked by no events of unusual interest. The 
pastor and the church moved on in mutual labor, and the 
growth was gradual and healthful. At this time the temper- 
ance reform was awakening the attention of Christian people. 
Social customs had been such that courtesy demanded the offer 
of the intoxicating cup even to the pastor in his visits. Early 
in his ministry Mr. Gilbert uttered himself in an address on 
the subject of temperance, which was published, and in which 
he took the advanced ground of total abstinence ; and he was 
supported in his efforts by the strong men of the community, 
among whom were Deacon Joel Fuller, and one who still 
survives among us — the venerable Seth Davis, who was 
efficient and in advance of his time in this reform. 

During Mr. Gilbert's ministry improvements were made 
from time to time in the meeting-house, until there was a 
demand for a new and modern structure, when it passed from 
sacred to civil uses, the town purchasing it for a town house ; 
and today, by a process of evolution, it blossoms out at our 
side as a City Hall, with hardly any identity with the original 
building, save in some of the timbers, which in their sound, 
undecayed condition remain a fit emblem of the faith of the 
fathers who worshiped beneath them. 

It was a decided sign of progress when, in 1848, the present 
church building was dedicated. The records show a willing 
spirit in generous contribution toward the new edifice. 1 A 
sermon on "The Genius of the Christian Religion" was 
preached by the pastor on the occasion of dedication, and 
published. 

Dr. Gilbert remained pastor of the church for a period of 
twenty-seven and a half years. It is the tribute of our City 
Historian to his ministry, that " his long period of faithful and 
unwearied service was an efficient means of building up the 
church and society." 

He is living in Brooklyn, New York, in the eighty-fourth 

1 See Appendix M. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 35 

year of his age — the only surviving ex-pastor of the church 
— and by occasional contributions to our local papers reveals 
his interest in the days of old, and his memory of past scenes. 
A written communication from him today will suffice to fill out 
the brevity of our reference to this period. 

Upon the same day — January 2, 1856 — Dr. Gilbert was 
dismissed and Mr. Joseph Payson Drummond was ordained, 
Professor Park, of Andover, preaching the sermon. 1 Mr. 
Drummond was a native of Maine, a graduate of Bowdoin 
College and of Andover Theological Seminary. It may be a 
coincidence worth noting, that he was associated with both 
his successors — with Mr. Little as classmate in college, and 
with the present pastor as classmate in the seminary. Mr. 
Drummond came with an uncertain tenure upon his health, 
and a single year of intermittent though earnest service com- 
pelled him to retire. His heart was made glad by the tokens 
of God's blessing upon his brief ministry. A season of 
unusual interest led him into unwonted ardent labors for his 
Master, and, ere he was aware, he was broken down in health. 
Too late he took his flight to a Southern clime, only to return 
to his home in Bristol, Me., where, after months of languish- 
ing, he departed this life on the 23d of November, 1857, at 
the age of thirty-three years. 

He had tendered his resignation in a letter from Aiken, 
S. C, in the month of March preceding, and it had been 
accepted. It was a sad disappointment both to pastor and 
people that this ministry should prove so brief. The church, 
upon hearing of his death, placed on its records a minute in 
testimony "to the warmth of his devotion, the faithfulness 
and energy of his efforts for the good of his people, and the 
ability and success of this too short ministry." The formal 
dissolution of his pastoral relation did not take place till the 
installation of his successor, a few days only before his death. 

The church in the meanwhile had extended a call to the 

1 See Appendix P. 



36 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

Rev. yohn O. Means, which had been declined ; then to the 
Rev. George Barker Little, which was accepted, and on the 
1 2th of November, 1857, Mr. Drummond was dismissed and 
Mr. Little was installed, Professor Phelps, of Andover, preach- 
ing the sermon. 1 A tender interest was given to this occa- 
sion by frequent references to Mr. Drummond, known to be 
near his end, and especially by his dying message to his 
people, which Rev. Mr. Means, classmate of both the departing 
and coming pastors, communicated in giving the right hand 
of fellowship : " Tell my dear people to meet me in heaven." 

Mr. Little was also a native of Maine, a graduate of 
Bowdoin College and of Andover Theological Seminary. 
He was ordained in Bangor, Me., October it, 1849, where 
he remained a pastor till 1857. From this large and labo- 
rious field he came to this church, with the hope that a 
change might arrest his failing health and restore him to 
vigor; but he was doomed to disappointment. In the second 
year of his service his feebleness so increased that he felt 
compelled to tender his resignation; but the church, in its 
strong attachment to him, requested his withdrawal of it, and 
granted him leave of absence, to gratify a long-cherished 
desire to visit Europe. The hope of restoration was not 
fulfilled, but he declined so rapidly that his return was 
hastened, after an absence of only three months. He renewed 
the tender of his resignation, but the church postponed action 
upon it, so fast did his life seem to be fading away. There is 
something inexpressibly pathetic and appealing in the last 
passage of his resignation, dictated to the church from his 
bed of weakness and suffering in Roxbury, a month before 
his death : " I cannot omit the opportunity to render again, 
for the last time, my testimony for the everlasting importance 
of the truths of the gospel — truths which I have commended 
to you so often, and which are now more precious to me than 
my life. Suffer me, with a solemnity borrowed from the 

1 See Appendix Q, 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 37 

grave and eternity, to beseech you not to neglect so great a 
salvation." 

Mr. Little was called to his rest on the 20th of July, at 
thirty-eight years of age. His funeral was attended at Rox- 
bury, the address being made by Rev. Dr. Thompson. The 
church was represented by its committee. 

That Mr. Little was a rare, choice spirit is evident from the 
impress he made upon this church in his brief connection 
with it. His memory is still kept, by those who knew him, 
as a man peculiarly refined, both by nature and culture, an 
accurate scholar, an able preacher, a faithful, sympathizing 
pastor, a disciple most devout in spirit. These brief months 
of his ministry here seem to be one of the choicest spots in 
the century, and his life going out of him in the hemorrhage 1 
which arrested his steps in these parish walks, was very like 
the breaking of the alabaster box full of precious ointment at 
the feet of Jesus, which has left its fragrance to this day. A 
memorial of him was published, in which the experiences of 
his long and last sickness are recorded in testimony of an 
inspiring faith and an enduring, cheerful patience. 

It was during Mr. Little's ministry, and through his efforts, 
that the church adopted congregational singing. He took 
great interest in this part of the service, and keenly enjoyed 
its success ; his own voice often leading the congregation 
with a clear and sweet distinctness. The singing became 
reputedly excellent, and this mode of service has been con- 
tinued to the present time. 

Mr. Little's death made the first vacancy in the pastorate 
of the church since the ordination of its first pastor ; but this 
continued only for the brief space of three months. A 
unanimous call was extended to the present pastor, then at 
Bedford, Mass., and on the 26th of September, i860, he was 
installed in the vacant pastorate, Professor Phelps preaching 
the sermon. 2 

The later years of this history have been marked by gen- 

1 See Appendix U. 2 See Appendix R. 



38 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

eral and steady growth. Outward prosperity in the com- 
munity has had its effect upon the church, and its numbers 
have more than doubled. There have been seasons of unusual 
interest, at about equidistant periods. 

The church had timely remembrance, in 1863, in the will 
of one of its members, Miss Sarah Baxter? and a convenient 
parsonage stands on the hill, in testimony of her regard for 
its pastors. It was dedicated February 20, 1867. 2 

We might tell the story of a Tuesday evening Bible-class 
which had an unusual life of interest and profit for six years, 
and which gathered to it the scholars and strong men of the 
church. The name of Samuel Warren 3 will always be associ- 
ated with it, and he will be remembered for the peculiar zest 
and enthusiasm with which he gave himself to the study of 
the original languages. As the outcome of that class, several 
articles appeared. in the New Englander and the Bibliotheca 
Sacra. 

We must note in our latest history a radical change, in the 
adoption of a new method for supporting the institutions of 
the gospel — by voluntary offerings. 4 The obnoxious word 
"tax" is thus dismissed from the records, and the substitution 
of a system of pledges broadens the constituency of, and 
extends the interest in, the church. The new method was 
instituted after the removal of all indebtedness ; and the intent 
of the system is thus far realized, in keeping free from the 
burden of debt, and offering to a larger number the privileges 
of a free seat, if desired, in our house of worship. 

These latter years have also been marked by improvements 
and transformations in the interior of our church edifice. 

1 Miss Sarah Baxter became a member of the church in 1857 (July 6), and 
died January 4, 1863, a g e d seventy-two. She was especially thoughtful, in her 
life, of the necessities of her pastor. 

2 See Appendix S. 

3 Samuel Warren was a member of the church twenty-nine years, a deacon 
seven years; wrote an article on "Jephtha's Vow," which was published in 
Vol. 24 of the Bib. Sac., Andover; died, from accident, October 25, 1867, aged 
sixty-seven. 

4 See Appendix T. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 39 

In 1877 a new and more devotional Service of Admission to 
the church was adopted, while the Articles of Faith remain 
unchanged. 

About the same time the afternoon service of the Sabbath 
was suspended, through the contagious example of the neigh- 
boring churches. 

A monthly Service of Praise has been sustained, on the last 
Sabbath evening of each month, for ten years past. 

These, with many other things, might be entered upon this 
record of the century, but they seem too near to dignify with 
the name of history. 

The century, in the review, naturally divides itself into 
three parts, with a proximate accuracy, according to Ministries. 
The first half belongs to Mr. Greenough, the succeeding quar- 
ter to Dr. Gilbert, while the two brief ministries of Mr. Little 
and Mr. Drummond, with the present pastorate, cover the last 
quarter of the century. 

The summary of membership is as follows : 

In Mr. Greenough's ministry 160 were added to the church, 
of whom 131 were by profession. This number includes 10 
who joined under the colleague pastorate, of whom 6 were by 
profession. 

In Dr. Gilbert's ministry 150 were added, of whom 78 were 
by profession. 

In Mr. Drummond's ministry 22 united, of whom 15 were 
by profession. 

In Mr. Little's ministry 39 were added, of whom 22 were 
by profession. 

During the present ministry 363 have been added, of whom 
168 were by profession. 

The whole number from the organization of the church is 
748, of whom 414 were united by profession. The largest 
number received in a single year was 71 — in 1872. 

It is easy, in running down the columns of annual returns, 
to note the seasons of revival, and, so marked, the years of 
blessing have been in the following order: 1782, 1794, 181 1, 



40 Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 

1817, 1827, 1832-33, 1837, 1843, 1852, 1857, 1859-60, 1863, 
1867-68, 1873, 1877, 1878. The relative increase of admis- 
sions by letter in the latter quarter of the century indicates the 
change from the stable, permanent residence of former years, 
to the fluctuations of the modern suburban community. 

A fact already referred to should be emphasized as perhaps 
the most notable thing in this history — the continued pastor- 
ate extending over the whole period of a hundred years with- 
out a break, saving the brief exception of three months. It 
should be also noted that but five ministers cover this period, 
and that two of these were arrested in their brief pastorates 
by sickness and death. These things should be mentioned to 
the credit of the church, and in testimony of its conservative 
character in these days of frequent change. 

It is a matter of regret that no record of the benevolence 
of the church has been made in annual returns till the begin- 
ning of the present pastorate. In these two decades the 
whole amount, in round numbers, has been $26,000. 

This sum has been swelled by the little rivulets which have 
flowed from the Juvenile Missionary Society, the Charity 
Circle, and the Sunday-school contributions. 

It is the natural suggestion of such a review to note the 
outward changes which the century has brought to this terri- 
tory, which was first included in the Second Parish, and which 
reveals the growth of the town as affecting our church 
history. 

The First Church at Newton Centre is now two hundred 
and seventeen years old, having been organized in 1664. It 
remained, till 1780, one hundred and sixteen years, the only 
church in this region, at which time the Baptist church by its 
side was organized. The next year the Second Congrega- 
tional Church was gathered here, and divided with the mother 
church the large territory which had been covered by her 
pastoral care. The part which fell to this church was not 
only the village of West Newton, but the portion of Waltham 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 41 

this side of the Charles River — then included in the town of 
Newton — North Village, a large part of Newtonville, Au- 
burndale, and Lower Falls. Some portions of this territory 
were more familiarly known to our older citizens under the 
undignified epithets of " Squash End " and " Tin Horn." 

The first contribution of strength from this church was to 
the Episcopal Church at the Lower Falls, organized in 181 2. 
Several families, about ten in number, resident there, severed 
their connection with the congregation here. 

The church in Waltham was next formed, in 1820, and 
those living in that vicinity left this church to unite with 
that congregation. 

In 1834 the Boston and Worcester Railroad established its 
first western terminus in this village, and the first train of 
cars reached this region — esteemed so far remote by our 
Boston neighbors as to be called, by some of them " a wilder- 
ness." The new sound of the steam-whistle, in place of the 
rumble of the stage-coaches, which had made our main street 
a thoroughfare, imparted a new life to the community, and 
the tide of population began to move in this direction. 

The Eliot Church was next organized, in 1845, at Newton 
Corner, taking most of its members from the First Church. 

Five years later the village of Auburndale had so increased 
in population as to demand more convenient church privileges, 
and a Congregational church was formed there in 1850, to 
which this congregation made the largest contribution. The 
Unitarian Society of this village, gathered two years before, 
had taken a few families from this congregation. 

The Methodist churches at Newtonville, in i860, and Au- 
burndale, in 1862, came next in the order, to draw from our 
strength. 

In 1866 the Baptist church in this village was organized, 
and took its proportion from our numbers. 

A larger levy was made upon our membership in the dis- 
mission of twelve persons to the Central Church at Newton- 
ville, formed in 1868. 



42. Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 

Later still, the Episcopal church was added to the list in 
this community, and claimed some who had been worshipers 
with us. 

The churches formed at North Village, in 1866, and at 
Newton Highlands, in 1872, did not affect our membership. 

It will be seen that this church, from its long-time and 
sole relation of daughter to the First Church, became itself 
a mother, and gave of its life to these surrounding churches 
in succession ; and this is the explanation we make today, if 
the wonder is expressed that this church does not show larger 
increase upon her own ground. She has been imparting to 
others ; but she has made these contributions willingly, and 
has ever held her relation to her neighbors with entire peace 
and harmony. 

The great changes which death and removal have brought 
to our congregation are impressed upon us in reading the 
rolls of former years, and noting the few surviving ones. Of 
the pew proprietors in 1831 on record, 1 there survives today 
but one, the most aged and venerable man of our community 
— Mr. Davis. 2 Of the subscribers to the fund for building 
this house, in 1847, there are but twelve out of fifty-six 
whom we know to be living. 3 

In the period with which the present pastor is conversant, 
the changes are as marked : thirty-three only out of ninety- 
nine families here at his installation remain, and of the mem- 
bers of the church at that time only one third are here 
today, in the present membership of two hundred and eighty- 
eight. The change is accounted for in part by removal, yet 
the figures confirm the estimate of a generation passing from 
us every thirty years by death. 

• Though this church was not lacking in patriotism in our 
civil war, it has no brilliant record to which to refer, and no 

1 See Appendix L. 

2 Mr. Seth Davis is now ninety-four years of age. 

3 See Appendix M. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 43 

occasion for any tablet to keep the names of its heroes. The 
church and congregation had its representatives in the ser- 
vice, who all returned in safety, with an honorable record. 1 In 
this connection, one scene in this house will be remembered 
by those who witnessed it — the funeral of three soldiers, 2 
from this community, though not attendants at this church, 
whose bodies had been recovered from the field of Gettys- 
burg and brought home for burial. The three caskets ranged 
in front of the pulpit, with the mournful drapings of the 
house and the sad service, recall a day of darkness when our 
hearts were oppressed with anxiety ; but it proved to be the 
darkest hour, as from the sacrifice on that field there dawned 
new light, and the tide of rebellion was turned back from its 
most northern limit. 

It should be added that the church generously granted its 
pastor leave of absence, in January, 1865, for a term of two 
months' service in the Christian Commission at City Point, 
Virginia. 

In this review, while time would fail us to note those wor- 
thy of commemoration by special mention, there is one name 
which stands out so prominently, and which represents so 
long and strong a support, that we may recall it today with 
gratitude — Deacon yoel Fuller, who was a member of the 
church forty-five years, a deacon thirty-one years, a super- 
intendent of the Sabbath school twenty years. 

All the traditions of this man betray an unusual mental 
ability, a strength of character, and a sincerity of piety which 
made him an eminent man in the church, and left an impress 
visible to this day. When he died, in 1848, at the age of 
sixty-two, it was written of him : 3 " Possessed of strong power 

x Joel H. Fuller, Thirty-second Massachusetts; Harrison A. Royce, Twenty- 
second Massachusetts; Francis W. Tufts, Forty-fourth Massachusetts; N. W.W. 
Tufts, Forty-fourth Massachusetts; William F. Tufts, Thirty-second Massa- 
chusetts. 

2 Messrs. F. A. Cutter, L. H. Hawkes, and T. L. Jackson. 

3 New England Puritan, Dec. 28, 1848. 



44 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

of mind, great kindness of heart, and deep religious principle, 
he has long been regarded as a pillar in the Church of Christ, 
and been highly respected and beloved by his fellow-citizens." ' 

We must linger a moment to speak of the good fortune of 
the church in its resident ministers. They have ever been 
good parishioners. The name of Rev. Dr. Joseph S. Clark 2 
brings to mind one who, though devoted to broader interests, 
did not fail in his faithfulness and duty to this church, espe- 
cially in the Sabbath school and prayer-meeting, during his 
residence of twelve years in this village. His name reminds 
us of the only living representative of the church in the min- 
istry, in his only son, Rev. Joseph B. Clark, who on New 
Year's Day, 1854, united with this church by profession of his 
faith, and, after collegiate and theological education at Am- 
herst and Andover, and three successful pastorates — in -Yar- 
mouth, Newton ville, and Jamaica Plain — has followed his 
father's footsteps into his present position as secretary of the 
Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. 

And in this connection reference should be made to the 
single link of the church to the missionary work, in the 
service of a daughter of Dr. Clark — now Mrs. L. E. Caswell, 
of Boston — for many years among the Seneca Indians in 
New York, and who still retains her connection with this 
church, which she joined, upon profession of faith, in Novem- 
ber, 185 1. 

1 December 17, 1848. Deacon Joel Fuller, "after he had served his own 
generation, by the will of God fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers." 
Acts xiii : 36. When shall we see his like again? The Lord give the churches 
and pastors such deacons. — From the Church Records, by Dr. Gilbert, p. S~. 

2 Joseph S. Clark, D.D., became a member of this church January 2, 1S4S, 
while he was Secretary of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. In 
1853 he became connected with the Congregational Library Association, and 
served it as Corresponding Secretary, Financial Agent, and Editor of the 
Congregational Quarterly, till his death, which took place at South Plymouth, 
Mass., August 17, 1861, at the age of sixty years. His funeral was attended at 
the church in West Newton, the services being conducted by the pastor, assisted 
by Rev. Mr. Holmes, of Plymouth, Rev. Mr. Quint, co-Editor of the Congrega- 
tional Quarterly, and Rev. Dr. Hooker, Secretary of the Massachusetts Home 
Missionary Society. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 45 

The later memory of Rev. Ari Raymond* in his enthusi- 
astic interest in his Bible-class, adds another to our ministerial 
helps in the past ; and we are not without grateful witness 
today that this succession has not passed away, in the person 
of our presiding officer. 2 

The hour fails us to mention even by name many others 
worthy of our tribute of praise for their long and unselfish 
devotion to this church. 3 The places that once knew them in 
their constant presence in the sanctuary, the prayer-meeting, 
and Sabbath school, now know them no more, and the forms 
once filling these places are crumbled into the dust of the 
grave ; but their words, their prayers, their examples of devo- 
tion, are living with an unwasting vitality. The very air is 
full of the past. Influences come upon us from the walls 
around us. The echoes of other voices reach us. "We are 
encompassed about with a great cloud of witnesses." It is 
ours to sit and listen. 

The sun does not bear away its light with itself at its set- 
ting. It leaves behind a brilliant trail of radiance which is 
the guide of many a weary traveler at the evening twilight. 
For the growth of ages since, our fires are burning more 
brightly at this hour. Leaves fell in these fields on that 
autumn day one hundred years ago, but the soil is richer 
today for their life. The waters of the little sluggish stream 
with prosaic name 4 behind our meeting-house have been 
flowing on to the sea through all the century, and, thence 
sucked up into " those wandering cisterns in the sky," have 

1 Rev. Ari Raymond united with this church, by letter, May 3, 1867. He had 
been a Home Missionary in Canada for twenty-five years. While resident here 
he served as Assistant Librarian of the General Theological Library, Boston. 
Loss of health confined him to his house and to his chair for three years before 
his death, which occurred on the 22d of March, 1881, at the age of sixty-five 
years. 

2 Rev. I. N. Tarbox, D.D. 

3 See Appendix V. 

4 Cheesecake Brook. 



46 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

poured themselves upon wider fields, while we stand by the 
brook and listen to its song today : 

" Men may come, and men may go, 
But I go on forever." 

So while we stumble over the graves of past generations, 
and tread their dust beneath our feet, yet we build upon the 
foundations they laid, we reap from the seed of their sowing, 
we are guided by the light of their lives. 

Their record was an honorable one. All the heroism, the 
patience, the faith, the sacrifice for which it stands cannot 
be told. Let us be thankful that we are in such a succession, 
that we are heirs to such virtue and piety. The streams 
which have made glad and greatly enriched the city of God 
must not stop with us, and disappear as rivers among sands 
in a desert. We should add force and width thereto, and send 
them on more swiftly, to bear refreshment and verdure and life 
to those who shall come after us. May our descendants who 
shall gather here a hundred years hence delight in our mem- 
ories, as today we rejoice in the memory of our fathers ; 
and, from generation to generation, all the honor and the 
praise and the glory shall be ascribed to the same Triune God, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 




'' ^s/rr//f//s//? 



V 



/> 



The above silhouette of the Rev. William Grcenough has been discovered since the date of 
printing the accompanying Memoir. 



SKETCH. 



BY WILLIAM W. GREENOUGH. 



Mr. President and Friends : At the request of your 
committee of arrangements I have prepared a short memoir 
of the Rev. William Greenough, the first pastor of this 
church, which I beg to offer for your consideration. His 
life in this parish covers the first half of the century, the 
completion of which calls you together today. Whether he 
fulfilled his whole duties as a man, a citizen, and a Christian 
minister in the community where he lived and died, and 
among the people who knew him best, is to be discovered 
from the testimony of his contemporaries. I shall have the 
honor to present to you the material facts of his life, so far 
as they are known to me, and will then leave the judgment in 
your hands. So many statements pertaining to his character 
and worth are already in print, that any notice of him must 
necessarily include much that has long been known to this 
community. 

The Rev. William Greenough was born at the residence 
of his father, the old Clark mansion, at the North End, in 
Boston, on the 29th of June, 1758. He was the son of 
Deacon Thomas Greenough, of the New Brick and Second 
Churches, by his second wife, Sarah, the daughter of David 
Stoddard, of Boston. He was a great-grandson of the emi- 
grant Captain William Greenough, who was here before the 
year 1650, was a ship-builder on Lynn (now Commercial) 
Street, and an active man in the affairs of the town. He had 



48 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

served as a captain in King Philip's war, was captain of one 
of the train-bands of Boston, and an officer of the Ancient 
and Honorable Artillery. Besides this, he was a member of 
the Second Church, and evidently a Puritan, with strong 
Puritan influences in his family and surroundings. It was his 
daughter Anne who received from Cotton Mather the remark- 
able commemoration contained in his Magnalia : 

" She left the world when she was about five years old, 
and yet gave astonishing discoveries of a regard unto God 
and Christ, and her own soul, before she went away. 
When she heard anything about the Lord Jesus Christ, she 
would be strangely transported and ravished in her spirit 
at it, and had an unspeakable delight in catechising. She 
would put strange questions about eternal things, and make 
answers herself that were extremely pertinent. Once, par- 
ticularly, she asked, 'Are we not dead in sin?' and presently 
added, ' But I will take this way : the Lord Jesus shall make 
me alive.' She was very frequent and constant in secret 
prayer, and could not, with any patience, be interrupted in it. 
When she fell sick, at last, of a consumption, she would not 
by sports be diverted from the thought of death, wherein she 
took such pleasure that she did not care to hear of anything 
else ; and if she were asked whether she were willing to die, 
she would still cheerfully reply, ' Ay, by all means, that I may 
go to the Lord Jesus Christ.' " J No anecdote could more viv- 
idly portray the influences which encompassed this young life, 
and the conversations to which she had listened in her strict 
Puritan home. 

Of the grandfather of the Rev. William Greenough, Captain 
John Greenough, and his father, Deacon Thomas Greenough, 
it is perhaps unnecessary to say more, in this connection, 
than that they were prominent and prosperous citizens, and 
members of the Second Church, and continued the Puritan 
habit of walk and conversation. 

1 Book VI, Example IV. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 49 

There is no record of his early years. He was fitted for col- 
lege in his native town, and entered Yale in the autumn of 1770. 
A letter from his father, written in October of that year, is extant, 
and is filled with good advice. In the scriptural language which 
was customary at the time, he says : "My dear, the end of liv- 
ing is to die well ; in order for that, I would have you devote 
yourself to the fear of God now in your youth, and then he 
won't forsake you when you grow old. Be careful to read 
your Bible, and lift up your heart to God to enable you to put 
a right construction on the Holy Scriptures, that it might 
make you wise unto salvation." Mr. Greenough finished his 
collegiate course in 1774, graduating with high honors, and 
with the valedictory oration in Latin as his part assigned at 
the Commencement services. He remained at New Haven, 
as a resident graduate, for one or two years afterward, pursu- 
ing his studies, and was admitted to a Master's degree at Yale, 
and honorary at Harvard, in 1779. It is presumed that those 
studies had reference to the profession which he was to 
embrace, and to which his life-work was to be devoted. 

Whether he became a member of the church while in col- 
lege is not absolutely known to me ; but, from his own state- 
ment of his religious convictions at the age of twelve years, 
such an event is by no means improbable. He was admitted 
a member of the Second Church in Boston, February 1, 1778, 
under the Rev. Dr. John Lothrop. 

From the conscientious devotion to principle which marked 
his whole career, at the time when it became necessary to 
embrace a profession he went through many painful anxieties. 
Endowed with an understanding and talent which would have 
obtained success in either of the learned professions, or in the 
conduct of mercantile affairs, one can only surmise, at the 
present day, the cause of his hesitation and doubt. Years 
after, when it became necessary for his eldest son, then fitting 
for college at the Phillips Academy, Andover, to make up his 
mind as to the path which he would select, he said, " If I 
thought he would suffer as much as I did in determining on 
the choice of a profession, I could hardly desire his life." 



5<3 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

There is no question now as to the correctness of his 
decision. He embraced the profession for which few men 
were so well fitted by education and character. At what time 
he was licensed to preach is not known to me. It is prob- 
able that, on his return to Boston, he consulted with and 
followed the advice of his kinsman, the Rev. Dr. Chauncy, at 
that time one of the most learned and respected of the New 
England clergy. In 1777, in connection with his friends, the 
Rev. John Eliot and the Rev. John Bradford, he assisted in 
the formation of a social club which met weekly at the houses 
of the members, and which today is in vigorous life, one hun- 
dred and four years after its formation. It has been greatly 
enlarged from its original functions, as at the outset it con- 
sisted only of three clergymen, three lawyers, and three 
physicians. I mention this fact because in the club traditions 
he is called, in 1777, the Rev. William Greenough. 

When and where he preached his first sermon is not known. 
He had given sufficient knowledge of his powers to be asked, 
in October, 1781, by the society forming in West Newton to 
assume its pastoral charge, and on the anniversary which is 
now celebrated he was settled over the young parish, the 
ordination sermon being preached by his friend and pastor, 
the Rev. Dr. Lothrop, of the Second Church. 

Let us stop for a moment to contemplate the conditions 
upon which the young clergyman entered upon his charge. 

His little church embraced twenty-six members, dismissed 
from the First Church in Newton. His " parish included not 
only the village of West Newton, but what is now that part 
of Waltham south of Charles River, North Village, the great- 
est part of Newtonville, Auburndale, and the Lower Falls." 
It is supposed that this area included fifty-five to sixty dwell- 
ings. In fact, the whole town was sparsely populated. It 
contained only 1,308 inhabitants in 1765, and numbered in 
1790 but 1,360. In the year 1800 it is stated that in an area 
of two square miles in West Newton there were but fifteen 
houses. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 51 

As a token of the Christian sympathy of the Second Church 
in Boston, it presented to the infant church one of its Bibles ; 
and Deacon Thomas Greenough, the father of the young 
pastor, gave for its service a christening basin, two flagons, 
and two dishes. 

The exhaustive war of the Revolution, which had proved 
so burdensome upon the resources of New England, and 
especially of Massachusetts, had just been brought to a tri- 
umphant issue by the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and 
the British forces at Yorktown on the 19th of October, 
but a few days before. John Hancock was governor of the 
Commonwealth. The unbalanced confederation of the old 
thirteen States, from its want of cohesion, was going from bad 
to worse. The people were poor, especially in the country 
villages. Mr. Greenough was a strong advocate of the pop- 
ular cause, followed its fortunes with the deepest interest, was 
subsequently a Federalist in politics, and to the end of his 
life was fond of recapitulating various incidents which alter- 
nately raised and depressed the hopes of the community, from 
the beginning to the end of the war. 

In the country so sparsely populated there was socially but 
little opportunity for intercourse among the people. The 
Sabbath services were the only stated occasions which called 
the families from their homes, and furnished the means of 
acquaintance and mutual sympathy. Says an accurate his- 
torian : " Every one went ; families from a distance came 
for the whole day, bringing their dinner with them [unless 
provision was made for their comfort at the. minister's 
house, as was the case in this parish], and leaving one 
child at home to watch the house and prepare the sup- 
per. The elders rode, carrying their wives on pillions, and 
sheds became the invariable accompaniment of the meet- 
ing-house. The young people walked to church, sometimes 
many miles, and were wont, from a thrifty regard for appear- 
ances, to stop and change their shoes and stockings just 
before they reached the church. Between services was the 



52 Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 

great occasion of the week. Then all the news and gossip of 
the neighborhood were interchanged, and formed, with the 
sermon, the topics of discussion. This brief interval of 
friendly meeting is the one gleam of enjoyment which 
relieves the New England Sabbath." x The Puritans were no 
holiday people. The struggle for existence, with the indus- 
trious farmers in the villages, was stern and serious. Their 
life was eminently a religious one. Every meal was an occa- 
sion of prayer; private fasts were common;, and recurrence 
to the Scriptures as a guide of life and conduct, and a 
resource in affliction, had become a part of their natures. 
Probably one result of this widely spread religious culture was 
that the commission of crimes was, on the whole, less fre- 
quent than in the other portions of the Union. The standard 
of morality has since been gradually lowered ; but at that 
time doors and windows were always left unbarred in the 
country. " The roads were perfectly safe. Young girls not 
only travelled alone in public conveyances, where they were 
universally well treated and protected, but rode through lonely 
woods after nightfall, unguarded and without fear or molesta- 
tion." The rapid increase of population and wealth during 
the last fifty years is of course largely responsible for this 
change. 

It is asserted that there were no beggars or poor per- 
sons, nor any class looking to charity for support, to be 
found in the country villages. The settlement laws, giving 
residence after three months, were strictly enforced. A 
stranger arriving at any village was at once put under exam- 
ination by the proper officers, for the purpose of ascertaining 
whether he possessed the means of support for himself and 
family, if he had any. Paupers were set up at auction, and 
sold to the lowest bidder for their support, who took them for 
such work as they seemed likely to accomplish. 

The servile classes were small. Slavery had been substan- 

1 Lodge, English Colonies, p. 433. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 53 

tially abolished in the country towns of Massachusetts at the 
close of the war. 

One more paragraph will add sufficient completeness to 
this picture of our immediate forefathers. "They were a 
simple, unpretentious race, almost universally frugal, hard- 
working, thrifty, intelligent, and honest; but they were also 
often hard, often narrow, averse to spending money, and not 
generous either in their conception or mode of life." 

These were the approximate conditions of the people 
among whom Mr. Greenough first cast his lot in life, and 
labored to its end. No wonder that, with the sparseness and 
poverty of the population, there should have been grave 
doubts among the best friends of the parish as to the success 
of the young pastor. His salary was fixed at eighty pounds 
and fifteen cords of wood, considered to . be equivalent to 
$266.66. 

Fortunately for his people and himself, he was not depend- 
ent for support upon this compensation. His mother, the 
daughter of David Stoddard, deceased in 1778, had left him 
joint heir with his brother of her valuable real estate, which 
produced sufficient income to take suitable care of himself 
and the family that was to come; so as to enable him to 
distribute in charity in his parish all and more than he 
received from it in money during the long years of his 
settlement. 

In the fourth year of his ministry, in the year 1785, after 
having become acquainted with the wants of the parish, he 
took unto himself a wife every way suited to be a helpmeet, 
and ready to assist in all parochial affairs. On the 1st of 
June he married Abigail, daughter of the Rev. Stephen 
Badger, of Natick, who had succeeded, in 1753, the Rev. 
Oliver Peabody as minister of the church, and as missionary 
to the feeble remnant of Indians still inhabiting that town. 
She lived but eleven years, leaving behind her four young 
children, a son and three daughters, all of whom lived to 
become of age. What her character was is best told by the 



54 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

one who knew her best, and who had his judgment inscribed 
on her tombstone, as follows : " Endowed with strong mental 
abilities, and blessed with a disposition peculiarly mild and 
benevolent, she was highly esteemed. As a child, a wife, a 
parent, and as a friend, she shone with such a luster as greatly 
endeared her to those with whom she was closely connected 
by the ties of nature, affection, and friendship. In early life 
she made a profession of religion, and by her temper and 
conduct afforded her afflicted friends the consoling hope that 
their loss was her unspeakable gain." 

Left with this family of young children requiring a mother's 
oversight, he was so fortunate as to secure for a second wife 
a lady every way fitted to succeed his first partner. He mar- 
ried, on May 22, 1798, Lydia, daughter of John Haskins, of 
Boston, who became the mother of one son and four-daugh- 
ters, and survived her husband twelve years. Many anecdotes 
are extant of her clearness of perception, of her personal 
sympathy with the families of the parish, of her association 
with her husband in parochial visits and cares, and of her 
large administrative ability, She left a personal impression 
upon the people which the lapse of fifty years has not effaced 
from the grateful recollections of the few survivors. One of 
the church gives the following personal description : " She 
was a stately, fine-looking, consistent, Christian woman. She 
seemed to endeavor to gain the good-will of all." 

Nearly contemporaneous with the settlement of Mr. Green- 
ough, the great Congregational schism which finally divided 
the sect into what were termed Orthodox and Unitarians 
began to loom up in the not remote future. I do not pro- 
pose, at the present time, to rake up the embers from which 
the fires are now extinct. But to understand fully the con- 
servative character of the young pastor, and his faithful 
adherence to the form of Puritanism in which he had been 
educated, and which he believed to be the faith "once deliv- 
ered to the saints," it is necessary to give a short sketch of 
the radical changes brought about by the distinct separation 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 55 

of the two parties in controversy, and perhaps to show 
approximately the final results. 

The absolute divorce from any clerical association with 
many of his old personal friends and brethren in the minis- 
try, with the changes which consequently came to pass in 
Harvard College, was the great grief of his life. But in him 
was no turning or shadow of turning. He was in no way 
possessed of the "fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised 
and un breathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, 
but slinks out of the race," to which Milton refers. He not 
only fought what he deemed to be heretical doctrines wherever 
he went, but he firmly refused to exchange pulpits with such 
of his brethren as were not, in his opinion, sound in their 
teachings. 

Beginning with the open Unitarianism of the Rev. Dr. 
Freeman, at King's Chapel, in 1784, the doctrine made its 
appearance in the Congregational churches in the next decade 
by the publication of the Bible News of the Rev. Dr. Worces- 
ter, of Brighton, and was brought, a few years later to an 
apparent culmination by the installation of the .Rev. Henry 
Ware, Sr., in the Professorship of Divinity at Harvard Col- 
lege, a Unitarian professor on an Orthodox foundation. 
These and other conditions, and the controversies and free 
discussions to which they gave rise among laity and people, 
made the position of a minister one of great vigilance and 
activity, and of constant questioning as to the reason of the 
faith that was in him. Mr. Greenough's geographical position 
placed him in the middle of the contest, and no one was 
surprised that he stood firm and unyielding in the old New 
England faith and in the Puritan doctrines. 

During his middle life he saw the Boston churches with 
which he had originally been in full communion, one after 
another, fall away from his creed, until the Old South alone 
reared on high the standard of the true cross and the catholic 
Trinitarian doctrines. He took a large interest in the forma- 
tion and building up of Park Street Church, in 18 10, which 



56 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

by its erection was to become a new bulwark to prevent the 
spread of what was then deemed the prevalent heresy. It is 
not too much to say, at the present time, that during the 
continuance of the active controversy, the determination, 
intelligence, and devotion with which Father Greenough had 
adhered to his principles gave large assistance to his side of 
the controversy, and could not fail to extort the respect of 
his opponents for his thorough honesty of purpose and purity 
of life. 

Now that the bitterness of the debate has long passed, one 
may possibly measure its results upon the theology of New 
England, as apparent to the calm observer. Would it be 
going too far to say that the Orthodox Church of today is 
stronger and wider spread than ever before, and that, while 
holding tenaciously to Evangelical doctrines, it has been 
liberalized ; and, on the other side, that the more conserva- 
tive class among Unitarians hold opinions not entirely dis- 
similar from the liberal Orthodox ; while the realistic section 
are floating away where every preacher is his own standard of 
religious faith and pulpit instruction ? 

But Mr. Greenough's attention was not solely limited to the 
seceders from the Puritanic faith. He watched closely the 
doctrines of those who nominally adhered to the more impor- 
tant articles of his creed, but who sought to ingraft new depart- 
ures in the churches. He was instrumental in forming the 
Evangelical "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," 
organized in the year 1800, of which the specific object 
was to check the tendency to " Hopkinsianism " — a name 
derived from its teacher, Rev. Dr. Samuel Hopkins, of New- 
port, R. I. In his belief, God had foreordained whatever had 
come to pass, and therefore was the author of all sin ; that 
regeneration from total depravity was practically impossible 
by any personal effort of repentance; that if men were not 
converted through their religious advantages, it but increased 
their guilt ; with other doctrines long since buried in the 
leaves of the books in which they were printed. If the 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 57 

society is still in existence, any publication of its meetings 
has escaped my notice. 

In his own parish he gave special attention to such organ- 
ized forms of Christian usefulness and endeavor as should 
unite his people in working for the general good. When the 
great benevolent society now known as the American Board 
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formed, in 18 10, 
monthly concerts of prayer in assistance of the object were 
held throughout the New England churches, and have been 
continued up to the present time, yielding important practical 
results, and giving sympathetic aid to this extensive organiza- 
tion. The Newton church, under the lead of its pastor, 
became awakened to the importance of united effort in the 
cause of missions, and the women of the society had also a 
union of their own for the same general object. 

The project for Sunday schools did not meet from him so 
favorable a reception. His natural dread of radical innova- 
tions, and his Puritan conservatism, made a longer deliberation 
necessary before he gave his full consent to the experiment. 
He desired to wait and see " how the thing worked in Brother 
Homer's parish." The ground seemed to him debatable, 
but the school was eventually opened. Its way, however, 
had long been prepared by his Bible-classes " of young people, 
who met once a month, on a week-day afternoon, in front of 
the sacramental table, to be instructed, counseled, and prayed 
for ; " and, says one of the survivors, " happy children were 
we." Religion, with him, was a reality, to be carried into 
daily life and practice. His sense of duty and obligation 
made him influential, not only in his own parish, but through 
the town. He often visited the public schools, to see how the 
young were intellectually nurtured. He literally watched and 
prayed. One of his friends said of him, in a good sense, that 
his godly life was a continual sermon. 

Thus he continued in what seemed to him the path of duty 
in the long years of his ministry, which led to the affection 
and reverence of his people, and the respectful regard of 
those outside his immediate ministration. 



58 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

In the year 1828 the Rev. Lyman Gilbert, D.D., was 
selected as his colleague. Of his relations to the senior 
pastor, until the time of the separation by death, he has 
given a most valuable record. The fifty years of his minis- 
terial service were now fast coming to a close. He died at 
his home, on the road leading to the Lower Falls from West 
Newton, on the 10th of November, 183 1, in the seventy-fifth 
year of his age, and was buried, by the side of the members 
of his family who had preceded him to the grave, in the now 
dilapidated burial-place of the parish. His last sickness was 
borne with Christian resignation and fortitude, and during its 
continuance he received many visits and much sympathy 
from his large circle of attached friends and relatives. His 
life of duty, affection, faith, and charity was over, and he 
went to his long rest. 

His personal appearance was striking : tall and spare, 
slightly stooping, over six feet in height, with large feet, 
ankles, and knee-joints, which were brought distinctly in view 
by his suit of small-clothes and long stockings, worn with 
silver knee-buckles, and shoes, the latter also with silver 
buckles. His nose was large, his forehead high, and the 
expression of his faee benevolent and sympathetic, with a 
decided touch of firmness about the mouth. His coat was 
cut in the style in vogue in 1776, and he wore a cocked-hat 
until it was so rarely seen that the boys followed him in the 
streets when he went to Boston. In the pulpit he originally 
wore a white stock and bands and a preacher's gown. 

Mr. Greenough was the friend of his people. This I 

mean in the true old English sense in which Bishop Jeremy 

Taylor has embodied the quality : " He only is fit to be 

chosen for a friend who can give counsel, or defend my cause, 

or guide me right, or relieve my need, or can and will, when 

I need it, do me good." ' His oldest son once remarked that 

he did not want to be a minister, for his father had not only 

1 

1 llishop Taylor's letter to Mrs. Catharine Philips. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 59 

his own troubles, but all the troubles of his people on his 
mind : 

" To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, 
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven." 

His natural sympathies, his warm heart, and unworldly 
nature naturally brought him into connection with every per- 
son who needed help, and the relation in which he stood to 
the anxious, the poor, and the afflicted was at once compre- 
hended by them. They were not of the race who sought and 
could not find. Even those who had no special need of his 
ministrations, except in his clerical office, spoke of him as a 
kind friend. It was said by his colleague, the Rev. Dr. Gil- 
bert: " He was alive to everything around him, and it seemed, 
at times, that all the cares and joys and sorrows and dangers 
of his people and the nation and the world were interwoven 
with the fibers of his soul." 

His personal characteristics, as they come down to us from 
tradition, from many anecdotes, and from the internal evidence 
afforded by the well-known facts of his life, are so strongly 
and distinctly marked that there is no variation in the testi- 
mony of those who knew him personally, and whose record 
of their acquaintance is either in print or in manuscript. 
Earnest, direct, and of conscientious integrity, his opinions 
were decided, and were pronounced with no indistinct utter- 
ance. He said what he meant, and he spoke what he felt. 
His conversation had a plainness of manner which sometimes 
savored of bluntness ; and this was not infrequently mis- 
understood by strangers. A more intimate acquaintance, 
however, showed that this apparent roughness was only a 
branch of that frankness of character for which he was 
distinguished and highly respected by all who knew him. 
Says his old friend, Dr. Jenks, who had made his acquaint- 
ance when himself a boy, and had continued intimate rela- 
tions with him through his life, ending with an address at his 
funeral : " His convictions were deep and thorough ; his rev- 
erence for God and his word, his Sabbath and ordinances, was 



60 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

sincere ; his hatred of sin and detestation of it, in all its forms, 
pointed and honest ; his deportment fearless, independent, 
and strictly conscientious ; and, in the simplicity and integ- 
rity of his heart, he manifested these qualities with great 
uniformity and consistency, seeming to wonder at the cun- 
ning, duplicity, hypocrisy, and selfishness which he at times 
detected in others, but not hesitating to reprove it, with 
humanity and Christian compassion, indeed, but with marked 
decision and abhorrence." 

Yet it was not inconsistent with this directness of expres- 
sion that his sympathies should be tender ; that he should be 
conscientiously and generously hospitable ; and that he should 
receive much pleasure in social life. He took great notice of 
children, and his relations to those of his parish established 
an affection and gratitude of which some now living delight 
to speak. He bore no ill-will to those who had injured or 
attempted to injure him — a trait of character which may well 
be considered remarkable, when one recollects the bitter 
religious controversy of his time. 

President Allen, in describing some traits of the Rev. Dr. 
Chauncy's character, is thought by the Rev. Dr. Jenks to 
have drawn a precise portrait of Father Greenough. " He was 
respected," says President Allen, "for the excellence of his 
character, being honest and sincere in his intercourse with 
his fellow men, kind and charitable and pious. Dissimulation, 
which was of all things most foreign to his nature, was the 
object of his severest invective. His language was remark- 
ably plain and pointed when he spoke against fraud, either in 
public bodies or in individuals. No company could restrain 
him from the honest expression of his sentiments." 

A sketch of the daily routine of his family life, drawn by a 
lady who was a near relative, and who in the year 1826 spent 
six months in the household, is fortunately at hand, and opens 
a clear view of their home ways. She says Mr. Greenough 
rose early, and attended family worship before breakfast. He 
then was engaged in studies and with his books till twelve 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 61 

o'clock, at which time the dinner was always ready. After 
dinner he would go out, or oftener receive company. His 
circle of acquaintances was large. His own people came to 
see him, and in those times he had also a great deal of minis- 
terial company. He and his wife being from Boston, his 
house was always open to their friends from that city. After 
tea, Mrs. Greenough and the rest of the family would join 
him in the sitting-room, with the wood fire burning on the 
hearth, and the evenings were passed most agreeably. Pre- 
cisely at 9 p. m. evening prayers were attended, and then 
the family retired for the night, unless on extraordinary 
occasions. 

Hardly any minister who ever preached carried into his 
pulpit more of his best attributes. All the personal charac- 
teristics which were most noticeable and praiseworthy found 
full utterance in his sermons. His discourses were often 
extempore — as often, naturally, as he felt that the subject 
and the occasion were sufficiently familiar to need no special 
written preparation. As a preacher, his efforts were marked 
by simplicity, sound sense, and clear exposition of doctrine, 
and, consequently, easy of comprehension by his audience. 
Their sincerity always attracted attention, and carried with 
him the sympathy of his hearers. His style of elocution is 
said to have been unusually chaste and pure. With his clear- 
ness and directness of thought and expression, it is not sur- 
prising that his faculty of explaining difficult passages in 
Scripture should have been unusual and satisfactory. He 
never asserted Bible truths on his own responsibility. He 
always said, " I apprehend," where many would lay down the 
law of interpretation on their own personal insight. He 
preached for his people, and not for himself. His education, 
his power, his life, was for the service to which he had dedi- 
cated himself. 

It is said that two or three of his discourses were printed, 
but of these only one has fallen within my knowledge. This 
is a sermon preached at the Old South Church, in Boston, on 



62 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

the i st of January, 1 8 14, before "The Society for Foreign 
Missions," and published at their request. It is a direct 
appeal for such aid as Boston might properly give : " Sensible 
that I am addressing those who live in a metropolis where 
acts of liberality have so much abounded, I trust you are not 
weary in well-doing." 

May I not, then, bring the present insufficient memoir to a 
termination in the words of Dr. South, which may fairly be 
considered as applicable ? " But that which makes the clergy 
glorious is to be knowing in their profession, unspotted in 
their lives, active and laborious in their charges, bold and 
resolute in opposing seducers, and daring to look vice in the 
face, though never so potent and illustrious ; and, lastly, to be 
gentle, courteous, and compassionate to all. These are our 
robes and our maces, our escutcheons and highest titles of 
honor." l 

1 South, vol. i, p. 264. 



flDDI^ESS. 

BY PROFESSOR J. HENRY THAYER. 

The trouble is, Mr. Chairman, that the person commem- 
orated does not select his spokesman. On being asked to 
speak, on an occasion like this, one is apt to be beset by an 
unpleasant misgiving as to his fitness acceptably to represent 
the departed. The misgiving is all the more warranted in 
my case, because I come from Andover. Now, Father 
Greenough was a dear lover of the Old Orthodoxy, while 
Andover Seminary, at its establishment, was affected with a 
disease known in those days as Hopkinsianism ; and had any 
one been called upon then to speak for Andover, there would 
have been some dread lest he spread the contagion. 

However, I shall take it for granted that Andover theology 
is no longer regarded in these parts either as " the pestilence 
that walketh in darkness," or as " the destruction that wasteth 
at noonday." Indeed, I make bold to presume that it would 
not be unacceptable to my honored ancestor himself; for, 
with all his other gifts and graces, Mr. Greenough was an 
eminently sensible man ; and there is no more reason to sup- 
pose that, were he now alive, he would reject all the modern 
improvements in theology, than that he would appear before 
this audience in small-clothes, wig, and shoe-buckles. 

Nay, it was he, and lovers of learning like him, who set in 
action the forces that are reshaping the world of religious 
thought. Some of the minds that have been most active in 
that world for a, generation were his foster-children; got the 



64 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

impulse to their career more or less directly from him ; and 
preeminent among them are the men who have contributed to 
make the Andover Seminary what it has been for a generation. 
A quarter of a century or so ago, three Christian scholars 
were talking familiarly together at Andover, when one of the 
three, who worthily wears a most worthy prefix to his name, 
was asked where he got that prefix, " William Greenough." 
He replied that it was given him by his father, in honor of the 
patron of his early studies, Rev. Mr. Greenough, of Newton, 
who first turned his attention to the profession of which he 
was for many years a useful member. That son, himself a 
Christian minister, has held five successive professorships in 
four different literary and theological institutions, and fills at 
present the chair of Doctrinal Theology in the Union Theo- 
logical Seminary of New York city. This reply drew forth 
from the questioner the fact that he in turn, through his 
father, was indebted to Mr. Greenough for his distinguished 
career. That father, for forty-six years a preacher of the 
gospel, was for twenty-nine of them Professor of Metaphysics 
in Brown University. His still more distinguished son, after 
having held for a short time the professorship of Moral and 
Intellectual Philosophy in Amherst College, was transferred 
to the Andover Seminary, where for forty-five years he has 
been unsurpassed as a brilliant preacher and writer, a fascinat- 
ing teacher, a theologian of wonderful acuteness and power. 
It was now the third man's turn to speak — a man who has 
filled professorships in two New England colleges and in two 
theological seminaries, and whose writings on educational and 
Biblical topics have had a wide circulation. He declared that 
his indebtedness to Father Greenough was of no secondary 
character ; for that same wise patron of learning cast a kindly 
eye on him when a boy at Natick, roused his ambition, aided 
him in his struggles, made him the man he was. Sir Hum- 
phry Davy, you remember, on being complimented upon his 
discoveries, replied, "The greatest of them all was Michael 
Faraday." In this line of discovery Father Greenough has 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 65 

won a triple crown. With beautiful congruity has one of his 
children, out of her patrimony, established at Andover the 
" Greenough Scholarship," for the aid of candidates for the 
ministry from generation to generation. 

Nor was this incident, disclosing as it does his agency in 
blessing and building up Andover, and, through her, unnum- 
bered other communities, altogether exceptional. It is rather 
a case in which the helpful influences which perpetually 
emanated from him converged for the moment into focal 
brightness. At least one other eminent preacher, professor, 
Oriental and Biblical scholar — the late Dr. William Jenks — 
has publicly put on record the fact that Father Greenough, in 
whose parish he was born, was the helper and guide of his 
early studies. And Mr. Greenough's interest in the schools 
of Newton is even yet, as I am told, a living tradition. 

But his interest was not restricted to the training of youth, 
nor his activity confined within the range of his personal 
acquaintance and official responsibility. That magnificent 
epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren's, " Do you ask for his mon- 
ument, look around you," does indeed find a measure of truth- 
ful application in this spot, once a wilderness, which he and 
his church have made as the garden of the Lord ; but not the 
least precious nor the least permanent results of his life are 
those which lie beyond the vision of sense. The establish- 
ment of the kingdom of God throughout the earth was his 
endeavor no less than his prayer. He was thoroughly in 
sympathy with that missionary spirit which is one of the 
distinctive characteristics of our modern Christianity. The 
diffusion of the gospel among the heathen found in him early 
advocacy and constant aid. May we not reverently congrat- 
ulate him today, as he looks down, we would fain believe, from 
his place among the spirits of the just made perfect, at the 
rich harvest which has sprung from his sowing — some thirty, 
some sixty, some a hundred-fold ? 

But these centennial celebrations, Mr. President, have more 
than an antiquarian interest. The chief value of the past lies 



66 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

in the lessons it reads to the present and the future. I trust, 
therefore, I shall not seem to overstep the proprieties of this 
occasion by letting my thoughts linger upon one or two of its 
suggestions. 

i. Does not the life of Mr. Greenough emphasize the nobil- 
ity of the Christian minister's calling ? There are religious 
young men, nowadays, who think the ministry an unattractive 
profession. In casting about them for a career, the work of 
preaching the gospel has little allurement. But surely that is 
no mean position from which such results proceed as have 
been passed in review today. That is no ignoble office which 
invests a man with the sweep of influence which this humble 
pastor is discovered to have wielded ; which works not only 
on a community at large, but on the best minds and to finest 
issues ; an office which secures for a man the opportunity of 
starting one soul and another on a career, literally, of glory, 
honor, and immortality ; which multiplies culture, spiritual 
refreshment, blessings manifold, to class after class, commu- 
nity after community, even to land beyond land. And this 
dignity, let it not be overlooked, cleaves not to the locality, 
but to the profession — to the work, not to the work when 
prosecuted conspicuously amid opulent and admiring crowds. 
West Newton one hundred years ago was not adorned with 
the wealth and culture which give it preeminence today. 
There is true nobility in the spectacle of that foremost grad- 
uate, who had enjoyed all the advantages which wealth and 
social position could then command, who was urged by am- 
bitious kindred to give himself to some other calling, or to 
the delights of a life of elegant leisure — all must acknowledge 
that there was noble self-abnegation in his resolutely accept- 
ing the pastorate of a church of twenty-six members up here 
in "Squash End," as the region was long contemptuously 
called. But this halo of heroism, with its captivation for 
noble natures, has not altogether departed from the profes- 
sion. Nay, the like opportunities for the like exhibition of 
heroic self-consecration are open to like-minded young men at 
the present hour. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 6 J 

2. And this may remind us that Father Greenough's career 
directs attention to the kind of men needed for the ministry, 
and the method of getting them. We have in these days 
societies by which the contributions of the benevolent are 
gathered and made available for aspirants to the sacred office; 
but there is some occasion for inquiring whether it would not 
be wise to give a little more heed to the kind of men to whom 
this pecuniary aid is extended. In former times, I take it, a 
much more direct personal responsibility was felt respecting 
the class of men who should enter the profession ; then they 
were picked men, chosen men of God — chosen by those whose 
daily duties rendered them adept in judging character, and 
who knew well, from experience, the requisites indispensable 
to success. Are they not now too often self-appointed — men 
who overlook the fact that many other things are necessary 
besides the desire to do a good work, in order to its accom- 
plishment ? To will is present with them, but how to perform 
they find not. When we see a single humble but vigilant 
pastor, with as scanty a range of selection as must have been 
open to him here seventy-five years ago, instrumental of put- 
ting into the high places of the profession a Jenks, a Stowe, 
a Shedd, a Park — yes, two Shedds (father and son), and four 
Parks (for all three of the Brown professor's sons became 
Congregational clergymen) ; nay, Jive, for the grandson is also 
a minister of the gospel — may we not, my clerical brethren, 
catch an admonitory suggestion ? 

3. Mr. Greenough's life also throws some light upon the 
secret of long pastorates. 

The methods of clerical training are coming in these days 
to furnish a topic for public discussion. At this all interested 
in them must greatly rejoice. The discussion has been too 
long delayed ; is conducted, as yet, in too desultory^ and gin- 
gerly a^ manner. Therefore, let the lamentation over the 
brevity of pastorates and the waning power of the pulpit go 
on. There is, indeed, a tone of irony in it to one's ear, on an 
occasion like this. Nevertheless, we must confess that the 



68 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

functions of the sacred profession are being virtually assumed 
by men whose chief qualifications seem to be a heart, a hymn- 
book, and a ready tongue. Young men organize Christian 
campaigns after the fashion of the politicians ; and, armed 
with a limp-bound Bible and the " Gospel Songs," undertake 
— if I may borrow their not too reverent speech — to "stump 
the State for Jesus." 

Now, do not imagine me to be undervaluing what is called 
"lay effort." On the contrary, I marvel at the days when it 
could be regarded as an ecclesiastical offense for a layman to 
institute or to conduct social religious meetings without cler- 
ical authorization. Would that all the Lord's people were 
prophets, even as they are all a royal priesthood ! But the 
very fact that " gospel workers " and " praying bands " and 
" salvation armies " find their abundant opportunity but en- 
forces to my mind the lesson which the diminishing influence 
and the peripatetic habits of the modern ministry inculcate. 
That lesson, put into words, sounds to us — thanks to Father 
Greenough and men of his stamp — like a truism: the need 
of an educated ministry. Who questions it? Ah, but every- 
thing is relative. It belongs to the very nature of a faithful 
minister's work to render that of his successors more exact- 
ing. The generous activity which he awakens calls for a still 
more generous and enterprising outlay. The very educators 
whom he helps to educate create a demand for a higher and 
wider range of professional learning. This is the divine law 
of growth in the kingdom of grace. Has the profession kept 
pace with it? Here and there, to be sure, a young man of 
first-rate parts and finished scholarship still goes into it ; but 
how often, nowadays, does one recognized as Master of Arts, 
regular and honorary, of our two foremost universities, settle 
down, as to his life's work, to looking after a handful of sheep 
in the wilderness ? Yet what need had such a pastor then 
of all the stores of learning, in comparison with the equip- 
ment required by one who would successfully meet, year after 
year for a generation, the intellectual questionings, the crav- 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 69 

ings of heart, of a community quickened by Sabbath schools 
and social circles and reading clubs and debating societies and 
public libraries, with magazines and newspapers which discuss 
fundamental problems in ethics, philosophy, religion? 

And yet fears are expressed in certain quarters lest the 
ministry be over-educated; lest they become so interested in 
learned questions as to disqualify them to understand and 
relieve the needs of the humble ! What such men (if they 
exist) want, is not a poorer education, but a wiser education. 
What they (and through them their parishes) suffer for, is not 
less learning, but more piety, more of the spirit of Him in 
whom were hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, 
yet who came to bind up the broken-hearted and preach glad 
tidings to the poor. In proportion to the increase of untrained 
workers, both as respects number and activity, ought to be 
the increase in the number and attainments of those who are 
to be guides and standard-bearers to the people — men who 
unite in themselves consummate culture and the passion for 
souls. 

The review of such a life as Mr. Greenough's ought to give 
us a higher estimate of the value and a fresh sense of the 
need of learned and godly ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. 



Communication. 

BY DR. LYMAN GILBERT, OF BROOKLYN, N. Y., 
Pastor of the Church from July, 1828, to January, i8j6. 

[read by dr. tarbox.] 

More than a hundred years ago a little germ sprouted from 
the earth. A few leaves came out, but, chilled by frost, fell 
off on the approach of winter, leaving only a little sprig above 
the ground. Spring returned. Vitality was there : leaves 
again put forth, and a taller growth was attained. So on from 
year to year, I know not amid what perils, what foot of man 
or beast fell upon it ; but in spite of all dangers it attained a 
size and beauty to attract the attention of John Barber, who, 
with his young wife, then kept the tavern in this place. He 
carried the tree upon his shoulder, and planted it before his 
door, in 1764. The road was then much lower than at pres- 
ent. The soil was good, and the aspect favorable to its 
growth. I know not what dangers it encountered from care- 
less drivers, restless beasts, or mischievous boys. The variety 
of seasons fell upon it, and, though shaken by every wind and 
beaten upon by every storm, it grew on, striking a deeper 
root, and raising its head higher toward the skies. After 
fifty years' growth it was subjected to the fury of a storm 
that will ever be memorable in New England, known as the 
great September gale of 181 5. 

The same year in which this tree was planted on its present 
site, another event transpired. A house of worship, which 



(©0MMUNI6ATI0N. 

BY DR. LYMAN GILBERT, OF BROOKLYN, N. Y., 
Pastor of the Church from July, 1828, to January, 1856. 

[read by dr. tarbox.] 

More than a hundred years ago a little germ sprouted from 
the earth. A few leaves came out, but, chilled by frost, fell 
off on the approach of winter, leaving only a little sprig above 
the ground. Spring returned. Vitality was there : leaves 
again put forth, and a taller growth was attained. So on from 
year to year, I know not amid what perils, what foot of man 
or beast fell upon it ; but in spite of all dangers it attained a 
size and beauty to attract the attention of John Barber, who, 
with his young wife, then kept the tavern in this place. He 
carried the tree upon his shoulder, and planted it before his 
door, in 1764. The road was then much lower than at pres- 
ent. The soil was good, and the aspect favorable to its 
growth. I know not what dangers it encountered from care- 
less drivers, restless beasts, or mischievous boys. The variety 
of seasons fell upon it, and, though shaken by every wind and 
beaten upon by every storm, it grew on, striking a deeper 
root, and raising its head higher toward the skies. After 
fifty years' growth it was subjected to the fury of a storm 
that will ever be memorable in New England, known as the 
great September gale of 181 5. 

The same year in which this tree was planted on its present 
site, another event transpired. A house of worship, which 



72 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

had been in progress through much tribulation for years, was 
finished. It was a building thirty feet by forty feet, without 
ornament, and standing on the very lot where you now wor- 
ship. The enterprise met with strong opposition from the 
people in the other part of the town ; not because they were 
sinners above all others, but because, as the pastor's salary 
was raised upon the grand list, if one half or one third were 
allowed to secede, the whole burden would fall upon those 
that were left. " Touch purse, touch conscience," was a 
maxim of Father Greenough's. For a dozen years the people 
in this part of the town continued to pay the parish tax, and, 
in addition, to contribute to the support of worship intermit- 
tently, as they were able. At length a division was effected by 
legislation of the General Court. A church was formed, and 
William Greenough, having supplied the pulpit for six months, 
was ordained as pastor of the new parish, November 8, 1781. 

The cause of truth and righteousness was to be maintained 
in troublous times. The Revolutionary war, with all its 
demoralizing effects, had raged for years. Cornwallis had 
just surrendered, but the war was not yet closed. Following 
the war, heavy taxes, numerous lawsuits, distressing the 
people and provoking the Shays rebellion, the French Revo- 
lution, the flood of infidelity, the fearful strides of intemper- 
ance, were so many forces antagonizing this and all similar 
enterprises for good. 

Still another storm was rising. A great defection from the 
faith of the fathers came over the churches in this part of our 
country. All the Congregational churches, with one excep- 
tion, in Boston, and a few in the vicinity, felt and yielded to 
the shock. 

No one event shows more vividly the strength of that 
storm than the case of the late Dr. Channing. Trained 
under the ministry of Rev. Dr. Hopkins, and settled as 
pastor of a church in Boston in 1803, he had for one of his 
parishioners the mother-in-law of the late Dr. Codman. 
Dining at her house on Saturdays, he made the acquaintance 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 73 

of young John Codman, an heir to a large estate, and a recent 
graduate of Cambridge College. His recent conversion and 
earnest Christian faith had determined him to enter the min- 
istry, and he had already commenced the study of theology 
with Dr. Ware, of Hingham. 

Channing conceived a warm attachment for Codman, invited 
him to ride with him in his carriage, and took occasion to 
advise him of the alarming defection from the faith of the 
fathers which was coming over the ministers and churches, and 
especially the younger ministers ; in view of which he urged 
him to a careful and diligent reading of the Scriptures, and 
earnest and persevering prayer, that he might be able to with- 
stand the shock ; little realizing that, in a future time, himself 
would be canonized as a leader in that defection. 

As there was no theological seminary in this country, 
young Codman, having ample means, went to Europe in 1805, 
and pursued his studies until 1808. On his return, he 
preached in Dorchester. The people speedily gave him a 
call to settle with them as pastor ; but, in view of the defec- 
tion of which Channing had warned him, he declined the 
call, until the people should be better informed of his views of 
the gospel which he intended to preach. He therefore wrote 
out a pretty full confession of his faith, for their information. 
It was considered, and, though some objected, the call was 
renewed and accepted, and Dr. Channing preached the ordi- 
nation sermon December 7, 1808. 

Meanwhile, some of the people of the Old South attended 
some of the Baptist churches in a season of revival, and, par- 
taking of the spirit, obtained a vote in the church in favor of 
a weekly evening lecture, as they then had no other services 
than the two on the Sabbath. This measure met with so 
much opposition from church and society that it was aban- 
doned. Eight brethren then formed themselves into a society 
for mutual religious improvement. They met weekly ; but 
such was the lack of confidence in the little band, that for 
several weeks not one of them could summon courage to 



74 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

engage in audible prayer. This was the nucleus of Park 
Street Church. For years their meetings were held, and the 
project of a new church was often discussed. May n, 1808, 
Rev. Mr. Huntington was settled in Old South, colleague with 
Dr. Eckley. The same year Rev. Dr. Kalloch, of Savannah, 
Ga., visited this region in the cause of evangelical religion. 
He urged this little band to go forward, build a house, and 
form a church, and gave them reason to believe in that case 
he would become their pastor. In a short time the sum of 
$40,000 was pledged, and one half paid for the lot. Steps 
were now taken for organizing a church. The churches 
invited were Old South and Federal Street, Boston ; Charles- 
town, Rev. Dr. Morse ; Cambridge, Rev. Dr. Holmes ; Dor- 
chester, Rev. Mr. Codman. The Boston churches declined. 
The other three met February 27, 1809, and organized a 
church of twenty-one members. Five subsequently were 
added by profession. The corner-stone of the church was 
laid May 1, 1809, Drs. Holmes and Morse assisting. The 
church had at once extended a call to Dr. Kalloch, and 
invited Dr. Griffin, then professor elect at Andover, to preach 
one sermon on the Sabbath, in connection with Dr. Kalloch. 
This enterprise created warm discussions, and met with much 
opposition. Many of the subscriptions were withdrawn, and 
the little church for a time was in great peril. 

Meanwhile, a council was called in this same year, October 
3, 1809, at Waltham, for the ordination of Mr. Samuel Ripley. 
The Council consisted of Rev. Dr. Osgood of Medford (who 
gave the charge to the pastor), Rev. Messrs. Adams of Acton, 
Stearns of Lincoln, Eliot of Watertown (concluding prayer), 
Greenough of Newton, Homer of Newton, Ripley of Concord 
(sermon), Freeman of Boston, Cary of Boston, Kendal of 
Weston (installing prayer), Holmes of Cambridge, Foster of 
Brighton, Fisk of West Cambridge, Emerson of Boston (right 
hand of fellowship), Ripley of Waterford, Me., Buckminster 
of Boston, Wellington of Templeton, Parker of Portsmouth, 
N. H., and Williams of Lexington, with delegates. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 75 

It was on this occasion that the gale struck Father Green- 
ough and the two churches of Newton. It was to him a 
severe trial. Mr. Ripley was a relative of his family, and 
while keeping a school at the Lower Falls, in passing and 
repassing, was a frequent guest at his house. Dr. Emerson, 
of Boston, was Mr. Greenough's brother-in-law, and Dr. Free- 
man was brother-in-law to Dr. Homer. To others of the 
council, specially of the Cambridge Association, he was 
warmly attached. 

By virtue of the third article of the Bill of Rights, religious 
societies had the exclusive right of electing their public 
teachers. Hence it had come to be understood, as I heard it 
avowed in an ordination sermon some twenty years after, that 
all a council has to do is to hear the call and the answer, and, 
if found regular, to proceed to ordination. No matter what 
dogmas the candidate may hold or preach, let the people see 
to that. Mr. Greenough told me that if a hundred dollars 
would have satisfied his conscience, he would cheerfully have 
paid it, and stayed at home. He felt, if he went, he must go 
under the charge of the apostle : " Lay hands suddenly on 
no man ; " " That which thou hast received, commit to faithful 
men who shall be able to teach others also." Long before, 
as he said, he had come to the conclusion that there were 
truths in the gospel that made it differ from all other religions. 

The papers were laid before the council, and the candidate 
was asked two or three questions, when the vote was taken, 
and, as all did not vote, the negative was called for. Mr. 
Greenough raised his hand. Mr. Homer, seeing his hand up, 
immediately put up his own ; then Mr. Holmes followed, and 
perhaps Mr. Williams. Mr. Greenough was considered the 
head and front of this offending. On account of it, he told 
me he had been a black man in this vicinity for twenty years. 
And when he claimed that he had followed his conscience, 
they said, " Nigger's conscience!" "What is that?" said I. 
" Don't you know ? " said he. " The negro put his hand on 
his breast and said, ' Something in here says I won't.' ' Dr. 



J 6 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

Homer met with no such reproach. When rallied on the 
matter, it was sufficient for him to say, " I will never leave 
Brother Grenno " (Greenough). Dr. Freeman's influence over 
Dr. Homer was very great, and he would just as readily have 
voted the other way, if Brother "Grenno" had. 

On his death-bed Mr. Greenough told me he had been 
reviewing that scene, and said he thought then he did right, 
and he felt now that he did right. 

January 10, 1810, Park Street Church was dedicated, and 
Dr. Griffin preached the sermon. The church had already 
extended to him a call, and also to four others, in succession, 
of the first ministers in the land, all of whom had declined. 
Boston at that time presented little attraction for Orthodox 
ministers. They now renewed the call to Dr. Griffin, who 
had preached for them, more or less, from the beginning. He 
was settled July 3, 181 1. 

Mr. Greenough had family relatives in that church, and was 
called on the council ; but he told them if he could have felt 
it to be right, he should have stayed at home. But they said, 
" Oh, Mr. Greenough, we are glad to see you here." He was 
chosen Moderator, and gave the charge, Dr. Morse the intro- 
ductory prayer, Dr. Worcester the sermon, Dr. Holmes the 
consecrating prayer, Rev. Mr. Homer the right hand of fellow- 
ship, Rev. Mr. Huntington the closing prayer. The pastorate 
continued three years and nine months, which made about six 
years of service. 

Dr. Bates, who was then in Dedham, told me, many years 
afterward, when Dr. Beecher was at the height of his popu- 
larity and usefulness, that if he had gone to Boston when Dr. 
Griffin did, he would have shared a very different fate. He 
said they told and published such outrageous stories about 
him that his friends were abashed, and ashamed to hold him 
up, and felt obliged to let him go. I was told by some one 
that he resigned, and returned to his old people at Newark, 
N. J., and preached on the text, " But the dove found no rest 
for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the 
ark." Mr. Greenough had to share in all that odium. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 77 

Though Dr. Coalman's people had urged his settlement, a 
complaint was made that he neglected to exchange with cer- 
tain of his council which ordained him. This was a long and 
stubborn controversy. At length a mutual council of twelve 
pastors and delegates was agreed upon. Dr. Codman came to 
see Mr. Greenough, as one whom he wished to select. Mr. 
Greenough desired to be excused. Dr. Codman persisted. 
Then Mr. Greenough told him, " I will come and hear patiently 
all on both sides, and then decide just as my conscience shall 
direct." Mr. Codman said, "You are just the man we want." 

The parish chose — J. Reed of Bridgewater, R. R. Eliot of 
Watertown, T. Thatcher of Dedham, Dr. Bancroft of Worces- 
ter, Dr. Kendal of Weston, Dr. Thayer of Lancaster. 

Dr. Codman chose — Dr. Prentice of Medfield, Dr. Lyman 
of Hatfield, Mr. Greenough of West Newton, Dr. Austin of 
Worcester, Dr. Morse of Charlestown, Dr. Worcester of 
Salem. 

The council met October 30, 181 1. 

These were trying times. If Father Greenough had yielded 
to the pressure and fallen before the storm, the two churches 
of this town would have gone with the rest. He said he had 
never published anything in the controversy. His maxim 
was, " Opposition makes opposition." He retained his con- 
nection with the Cambridge Association, and at the ordination 
of Sewell Harding in Waltham, in 1821, served on the coun- 
cil with that same Mr. Ripley, but drew off and joined the 
Suffolk Association not long after. The war of 18 12-15, 
with military trainings and the increased evils of rum-drinking, 
followed. Rum sold at fifty cents a gallon ; everybody must 
drink, and everybody must treat. 

Mr. Greenough told me he had seen many a time in his 
ministry when he would have left the place, if his conscience 
had let him. In one of these times he exchanged with a 
brother whose case seemed less hopeful than his own, and he 
said to him, "What makes you stay here in so small a field?" 
He replied, " Did you notice an elderly woman, in a corner 



7 8 Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 

pew, giving you the strictest attention all through the ser- 
vice?" "Yes." "Well, I am staying here to do what I can 
to help that woman into heaven." He reflected upon it, and 
settled down to his work. 

In 1826 the cause of temperance came up. Many gave up 
their drinking habits. A conference of churches was held in 
the East Parish. Mr. Greenough stated that for fourteen 
years they had been in a state of spiritual dearth. Dr. 
Beecher said, " God willing, Father Greenough shall not say 
that at next Conference." A revival in these two churches 
followed. A colleague was settled with Dr. Homer. Then 
Father Greenough came before his people, and said that he 
had spent his days among them, and now if they would settle 
a man whom he should approve, he would give up his salary 
and preach half of the time. They said, " No, Mr. Greenough ; 
preach on. We are not wanting a change." But he said, "I 
want to feel that the gospel will be preached here after I am 
gone." 

As for myself, I have not much to say. When drawing 
near the time of leaving the seminary, I looked back over the 
way in which the Lord had led me into the ministry. I said, 
" I will commit my way still to his direction." Dr. Woods 
said to me, "If you will go on a foreign mission, I will be 
happy to encourage it." I replied that " it was by a sunstroke 
that I was turned aside from manual labor to a course of 
study, and it seemed not prudent for me to settle in a hot 
climate such as the missionary stations were then in." Soon 
after, Professor Stuart said to me, " I am applied to by friends 
in Danbury, Conn., for a candidate. Will you go ? " " Yes, 
sir." I preached there the first Sabbath after leaving An- 
dover, and engaged for three months. At the end of that 
time a parish meeting was held. It was said all the people 
were ready to give me a call ; but the parish had at some 
previous meeting voted they would never settle another pastor 
except on a condition of six months' notice. The church had 
also voted never to settle one on such condition. A prelim- 






One Hundredth Anniversary. 79 

inary question, therefore, was debated till a late hour at night, 
when the meeting was adjourned for two months, and I was 
requested to continue. Then, at the end of that period, 
another meeting was held, and continued until after midnight. 
I left the next day for New York ; stopped there over two 
Sabbaths, on one of which I preached, and was invited to 
supply the pulpit of an absent pastor for six months. But I 
had planned to visit my native State, Vermont. I reached 
Middlebury on Monday, at ten o'clock a. m., and called on my 
old pastor. At twelve o'clock the mail from Boston brought 
a letter from Father Greenough to Dr. Bates, president of the 
college, asking him, on the score of old acquaintance, to send 
them a candidate. Dr. Bates, who had been pastor in Ded- 
ham, brought the letter directly to me. I told him I intended 
to return to Massachusetts in three weeks, when I would call 
on and preach for Mr. Greenough. On my way I stopped at 
Andover, and called on Professor Stuart. As soon as he saw 
me he cried out, " Oh, you ought to have been here yesterday. 
A committee were here from Dr. Payson's church after a 
candidate, and we had no one to recommend." " Well," I 
said, " I am pledged for Newton for next Sabbath." As I had 
been requested by friends in Danbury to keep myself unen- 
gaged, and keep them advised, as long as I could, in the hope 
of extending me a call, I hardly felt at liberty for another 
engagement. 

In due time I arrived at the venerable home of Father 
Greenough, was very cordially received, and preached for him 
the next day. On Monday morning he said to me, " If you 
have made up your mind that you will not settle in a small 
parish, the sooner you are out of town the better it will 
be for us." I told him I had no such purpose, but should 
follow the leadings of Providence. I preached four Sabbaths, 
and left to preach at Brighton, in the absence of the pastor. 
Just then I received another letter from Danbury, and, as a 
parish meeting at West Newton had been called, I asked them 
to wait two weeks, lest I might disappoint them. At the 



80 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

adjourned meeting I received a unanimous call. I consulted 
many friends, and among them Rev. Dr. Woods, professor at 
Andover, who was counted an oracle in those days. He 
replied, " I know all the ground perfectly. If you go there, 
you will not be merely a pastor in a small parish, but one of a 
host. We want to settle as many ministers in and around 
Boston as we possibly can, who shall work together" — for 
the end, as Dr. Beecher often expressed it, to turn back the 
captivity of Zion. So I concluded to accept the call, and 
was ordained July 2, 1828. 

The population of the town was about twenty-three hun- 
dred. The West Parish, from the Lower Falls to Watertown, 
contained about sixty houses, and about four hundred and 
eighty people. In this population, about forty families were 
connected with the society ; others had signed off. The 
church contained about fifty members; the Sabbath school, 
about forty scholars. In the community were counted twenty 
drunkards, and twenty more occupying a doubtful position. 
Mr. Davis had a private English school, and there were two 
district school-houses — one room and one story each. I 
found here no doctor, and the people were healthy ; no law- 
yer, for the people were peaceable; no ex-minister, for all the 
ministers were needed, in those days; no liberally educated 
man, for his proper work was elsewhere. The people were 
farmers, mechanics, and other laborers, having not much time 
to play on instruments ; only one piano in the place. The 
meeting-house, originally thirty feet by thirty-six feet, about 
ten years before had been turned round, and twelve or four- 
teen feet and a porch and belfry added. The main house was 
now thirty-six feet by forty-four feet, and it had wide galleries, 
and was lighted by fifty windows. The square pews in the 
body of the house had swing seats. A bell, for the first 
time, had been put up, to ring in the coming of the new 
pastor. My salary was six hundred dollars, and raised by 
taxation. In the limits of the parish were two corporations, 
which have no souls and could not sign off. The two paid 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 81 

about one third of my salary ; but when the law was repealed, 
some three years after, having no souls to care for, they 
stopped paying. 

Some religious interest was perceptible among the people 
when I preached there as a candidate, being a continuance of 
a revival which had prevailed in the town the preceding year, 
and several persons joined the church the Sabbath preceding 
my ordination. Probably about half the church had been 
the subjects of that revival, and were ready for every good 
work. I found myself surrounded by a united and loving 
people, with whom I lived for years in unbroken harmony. 
Many years after I became the pastor, Deacon Joel Fuller, 
who was one of the pillars of church and society, made a long 
journey. When he came back, he told me he had been to 
many places and called on many people, and at every place he 
visited they were complaining of their minister, and he was 
glad to get home, where there was peace and love. He was 
one who had felt great solicitude for the continuance of the 
gospel in this place. In 1826, when the Trinitarian church 
was built in Waltham, he did for it all that he was able, so 
that if, on Mr. Greenough's death, this church went down, he 
would have a place to worship near home. But he ceased not 
to pray for his own church. His wife told me, years after his 
death, it seemed to her that he prayed this house into exist- 
ence ; that he came home after the dedication, and said, " My 
work is now done; the gospel will be preached here." He 
died not long after. 

Did time permit, it would be pleasant to call up to memory 
other men and noble women, not a few, who did good service 
in the Master's cause. They all worked together to the extent 
of their means, and beyond their means, to maintain the gos- 
pel at home, contributing, meanwhile, to the various benevo- 
lent objects presented. I resolved to preach the whole counsel 
of God, whether men would hear or forbear. As I sowed the 
seed, some fell by the wayside, some among thorns, some on 
stony ground, some on good ground, and sometimes we sang 



82 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

of seed that might lie buried long and spring up in after time, 
and he that soweth and he that reapeth rejoice together. 
There were seasons of refreshing and seasons of dearth. At 
one time, early in my ministry, I received into my parlor 
sixty inquirers in a single day and evening; at other times 
we mourned the absence of converting power. 

My connection with the " host," as Dr. Woods called it, was 
agreeable and instructive. A single fact may give some idea 
of its working. Called once on a council a little aside from 
our usual field, I tried to excuse myself from serving as scribe 
by saying that I had already acted in that capacity on some 
fifteen councils. 

But this is Father Greenough's day, and I forbear to say 
more of myself. Other facts respecting him and me have 
recently been published in the History of Newton. May this 
house prove to every worshiper none other than the house of 
God and the gate of heaven ! Pray for me. " Now the God of 
peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, 
that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the 
everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to 
do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his 
sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and 
ever. Amen." 



flDDI^ESS. 



BY REV. JOHN O. MEANS, D.D. 



Of the five ministers of this church, the services of three 
cover a period of ninety-nine years ; the service of one as 
associate pastor overlapped that of the elder. Your other 
two ministers were so early translated to the Church triumph- 
ant that their united pastorates here cover but three and a 
half years. 

I am requested to say something of these youngest men. 
They were my college classmates, and I was associated with 
them for a few months of ministry here. 

In the class which entered Bowdoin College in 1839, one °f 
the youngest was Joseph P. Drummond, of Bristol, Me. 
Though a boy of fifteen, he had the physical stature and 
aspect of a well-grown man, and brought from the then famous 
school of North Yarmouth the reputation of superior scholar- 
ship. In the largest class the college had ever had he at 
once took, and held to the last, rank among the foremost. 
Graduating in 1843, he became a successful teacher, and at 
one time, fired with enthusiasm over the biography of Dr. 
Arnold, then just published, he had thoughts of giving his 
life to teaching in the school-house instead of in the church. 
Dr. Samuel H. Taylor, of Andover, had him among his most 
trusted and honored assistants, and appreciated, as he stimu- 
lated, the thorough scholarship and vigorous enthusiasm with 
which he crowded himself and his scholars to their best work. 
He came to the Theological Seminary at Andover with a 



84 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

maturity of mind and character, as well as a breadth of schol- 
arship, which only such laborious years of teaching could 
give. Constitutionally he was a worker, and "drove his 
work" with all his might; not content with doing as much as 
he could, but restless to do more. His body was not equal to 
the exactions he made upon it, and he left the seminary and 
entered the ministry, equipped beyond most with intellectual 
drill and furniture, and with strong, earnest, deep, spiritual 
devotion, but with an overweighted brain, unstrung nerves, 
and a capricious digestion. Very soon it was noticed by 
watchful observers that the brightness which flamed in his 
cheek, and the glow which flashed from his eye, as he rushed 
along in the passionate periods of his sermons, gave indica- 
tion of pulmonary disease. He had not been here a twelve- 
month before his lungs gave such tokens of decay that he was 
obliged to leave the work in which he was reveling with keen 
delight. He spent a winter in the South, with no improve- 
ment ; reluctantly he resigned his charge, came north in the 
early summer, and, lingering through painful weeks, died at 
his native town of Bristol, Me., the 28th of November, 1857. 

His pastorate — his only one — covered a year and ten 
months. In that time he knew his people and they knew and 
loved him. He was in your homes and in your hearts. His 
long, swift strides carried him up the beautiful hill-side, where 
the few houses were scattered wide apart, and out to the 
sequestered, sun-lighted farm-houses, and along the cross- 
streets and lanes of the parish. His mind was fertile of great 
plans for the interest of the young and the instruction of all. 
He who sees the end from the beginning had other plans for 
him and for you. 

We cannot see how it is consistent with spiritual economy 
to allow gallant soldiers to fall out of the ranks in the very 
moment when, drill and inspection ended, full-armed and 
ranged in battle order, they are " heady for the fight." It was 
hard for Mr. Drummond to leave the battle-field. He was 
carried from it. He yielded, because it was the will of God. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 85 

He longed to do, he became resigned to suffer, the perfect will 
of God. 

November 12, 1857, ten days before he died, George Barker 
Little, his classmate and friend, became his successor in this 
parish, and, two years and eight months afterward, with the 
same disease, followed him to the grave. 

When Mr. Drummond was obliged to go South, I had just 
returned from a year's residence in Europe, and, at his request 
and yours, came to his house and pulpit for the winter, and 
labored in his place. Thus I had the great honor and enjoy- 
ment of a partial ministry here between my classmates, one 
of whom was as much younger as the other was older. 

George Little was like and very unlike Mr. Drummond. 
In scholarly instincts and habits he was like him. At times, 
too, like Mr. Drummond, he manifested a certain tinge of 
weary sadness and the depression which comes from baffled 
endeavors. But with Mr. Drummond this "melancholy cast" 
seemed bred in the bone, while with Mr. Little it was occa- 
sional, and due to special causes. When a boy in college, 
Joseph Drummond wore a grave, pensive aspect. The respon- 
sibilities of life already weighed heavily upon him. When he 
was graduating, at the age of nineteen, the verse he chose for 
a friend's autograph-book was : 

" O let the soul her slumbers break, 
Let thought be quickened and awake : 

Awake to see 
How soon this life is past and gone, 
And Death comes softly stealing on, 
How silently ! " 

George Little's words in the same book were : " Providence 
at last has led us to the goal of our college career- — points us 
to a world of labor, and bids us go and work!' 

Before disease came upon him, Mr. Little had a spring and 
elasticity which made him eager for the fullest activities of 
life, and expectant of delight in labor. A year ago, when I 
visited the college, I heard still lingering in the halls the 



86 Second Congregatio7ial Church, Newton. 

echoes of his ringing laugh, and felt upon my shoulder the 
love-stroke with which he touched me as he leaped up the 
stairways two steps at a time, shouting cheerily, " Wie gehets, 
mein Herr ? " 

Mr. Little was born in Castine, Me., December 21, 1821. 
He was fitted for college at Leicester Academy, Mass., where 
he had for a schoolfellow and friend Thomas Hill, afterward 
President of Harvard College. In mathematics he took no 
delight, but for ancient and modern languages he "lived labo- 
rious days " and nights ; and in general broad, philosophical, 
historical and literary culture no one in college was his superior. 
Recently I heard a gentleman speak with enthusiasm of Mr. 
Little's graduating oration, delivered thirty-eight years ago, 
on "God's Hand in History." The res aiigustce domi com- 
pelled him to provide for himself after leaving college, and he 
spent several years in teaching; making a wise use of his 
time — pushing his studies in English, French, German, Span- 
ish, and Italian literature, with a keen relish for which Pro- 
fessor Daniel Raynes Goodwin had inoculated a number of 
our college class. After the full course of study at Andover, 
Mr. Little graduated in 1849. ^ n ^ ne spring vacation pre- 
vious he went with me to my home in Augusta, and in the 
chapel there, of a Wednesday evening, preached his first ser- 
mon — a memorable sermon ; his text was the fifteenth verse 
of Jude : " To convince all that are ungodly ... of all their 
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against 
him." 

He went on to Bangor, and occupied the pulpit of the First 
Church four Sundays, crowding the meeting-house, aisles and 
galleries. He received at once an impetuous call to become 
pastor, and, October 1 ith, a month after leaving the seminary, 
was ordained. So eager were the people, that no time for rest 
after graduating was given him. He was compelled to write 
his introductory sermon, though he knew the extraordinary 
expectations he must meet, while swashing up and down 
becalmed on board the schooner which then was the only 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 87 

conveyance for passengers from Belfast across Penobscot Bay 
to Castine. 

Eight happy years of successful ministry were given him 
at Bangor. Before they were half gone, his health began to 
yield to the strain and excitement of a great city parish. His 
eyes, which in college had been the eyes of an eagle, suddenly 
failed him ; for long, painful months he sat among his books, 
too happy if now and then he might steal a furtive glance 
into them. " This condition of my eyes is very depressing," he 
once said, when it afterward returned upon him at West New- 
ton ; " but it is a good time for me to look at the things which 
are unseen and eternal. ... I am finding out that there are 
other and better teachers than books." After long waiting at 
Bangor to see if rest would restore strength and give hope of 
continued labor, it became clear that as long as he had charge 
of such a church he would gain nothing, but keep slipping 
back. 

Your call found him in this condition. He had before this 
declined to entertain proposals looking to a college professor- 
ship. He was urged to come here, in view of the healthful- 
ness and less burdensome responsibilities of this parish. That 
it must be a fearful wrench to tear him away from Bangor, you 
well knew ; but you were more and more eager for his coming, 
and, after long questionings, he came. 

He came, then, whole-hearted, to give you the ripest fruit of 
his intellectual and spiritual culture. At first, and for awhile, 
the change wrought wonders. The old fire flashed from his 
eye, the tender pathos trembled upon his lips. That Sabbath 
came to be a high day to you when you found Mr. Little at 
home in his pulpit. In the Sunday school, in the monthly 
concert, in the prayer-meetings, in preparing for the service of 
song, he wrought with old-time enthusiasm. 

Dr. Furber says Mr. Little was the means of introducing 
congregational singing into this church ; and adds, that he 
was unable to give full utterance to his gratification at the 
success of it. " It seemed," he said, " as much like true wor- 
ship as anything could be, this side heaven." 



88 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

When a boy three years old, the story runs, he would follow 
a funeral procession to hear the singing at the grave. There 
used to be woods near his house here, full of birds, and " he 
has been known to spend hours listening to their songs, and 
would search for a long time for some bird which he heard 
singing at a distance." " Why was not I born in Germany ? " 
he used to say, when college boys talked about what sort of a 
life they would like. " Why was not my father Capellmeister 
in Leipsic, Strasburg, or Cologne, so that I could have been 
brought up to be a Capellmeister ? " 

" Not in the pulpit," however, as he truly said himself, did 
he reap the fairest rewards of his ministerial life, "but in the 
chamber of the sick and dying, and from their greetings ; 
from the smile that has sometimes irradiated their pale faces 
as I have approached the bedside, the attenuated hand ex- 
tended to grasp mine, and the manifest satisfaction with which 
they would lay hold upon some sweet word of the blessed 
gospel which I repeated." 

Preaching, laboring from house to house, by his fascinating 
cordiality winning his way into young hearts and old; exer- 
cising such a spell upon his intimates that they would beggar 
themselves to do him a favor; ripening in Christian graces, 
and growing in capacity for service ; two years had not gone 
by here before his old debility returned. The first Friday of 
January, i860, was intensely cold. He spent most of the day 
in walks about the parish and in visits to the afflicted. In the 
prayer-meeting he spoke at length and with unusual anima- 
tion. That night, as he was closing his eyes in sleep, he 
coughed violently, and a stream of blood poured from his 
mouth. It was the beginning of the end, and he knew it. 
Entirely tranquil, he said: " This blood is from my lungs; I 
feel it ; it comes from deep down. I have long been preparing 
for this. I shall never preach again, I think." 

Never from the pulpit did he preach again. From his sick- 
chamber he preached ; from the precious memorial of his last 
days he has been preaching, and he will keep on preaching, 
with a power and pathos unknown before. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 89 

A voyage to Europe did nothing to stay his disease. He 
was brought back to die, thankful that he could reach home 
to die. June 4, of i860, he insisted upon your accepting the 
resignation he tendered in February. After sufferings such 
as few have experienced, prolonged through the days and 
nights of weary weeks, he fell asleep Friday morning, July 20. 
He was thirty-eight years of age. " Thou hadst an infirmity 
thirty and eight years," said Dr. Thompson, at the funeral, 
" but Jesus Christ hath made thee whole." 

The dying-chamber of the fourth minister of your church 
was close to my residence, on Mount Pleasant, Roxbury. We 
took his dear body into Vine Street Church, and then laid it 
away at Forest Hills, in assured and glorious hope. The last 
intelligible words from his lips were, " Heaven — part down 
here — part up there!" They shall be my last words now; 
many of you will join me in repeating them : " Heaven — 
part down here — part up there ! " 







Church Edifice before the change in 1831. From a pencil sketch by George Fuller. 
(For Floor Plan see page 157.) 



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Parish F>istory. 

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BY HON. JULIUS L. CLARKE. 



In our commemoration of this Hundredth Anniversary of 
the Second Congregational Church of Newton, attention is 
naturally attracted by events of unusual character and interest 
not often recorded in church or parish history. Among these 
are occurrences antedating the birth of this elder daughter of 
an honored parentage, filially reverenced as the First Church 
of Newton. 

Our venerable ancestor had already filled an eventful career, 
and reached a ripe old age, ere its first-born, this West Pre- 
cinct Church, was introduced into life and history. But prior 
to the advent of the latter, in 1781, two important events had 
taken place — the erection of a meeting-house, and the incor- 
poration of a Precinct, or Parish, the first in 1764, the latter 
in 1778, thus antedating, by seventeen and three years respect- 
ively, the organization of the Church of which they were the 
auspicious harbingers. 

If the record warrants no other deduction, we may certainly 
accept it as a significant chronicle of the old Puritanic esti- 
mate of religious privilege and teaching which our forefathers 
deemed so essential to their secular and spiritual welfare. In 
such a recognition of the value of Christian precept and 
principle, the early settlers of this ancient town, and the 
founders of this West Precinct, have transmitted to their 
successors an injunction of high and sacred trust. Nor is it 
any the less forcible and suggestive as a reflection of the 



92 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

public conscience and its outcome of legislative enactment, 
which, in those early times, so largely controlled the pruden- 
tial and spiritual interests, not only of individuals and com- 
munities, but of churches and parishes. 

Even a casual glance at the inception and inspiration of 
civil and religious polity, in our colonial epoch, most clearly 
and closely identifies the convictions and usages of our prede- 
cessors of the eighteenth with those of the nineteenth centu- 
ries. In the letters-patent, or charters, granted by King 
James the First, in 1620, by Charles the First, in 1628, and 
by William and Mary, in 1691 — the latter uniting the Colo- 
nies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, with Maine and 
Nova Scotia, under one jurisdiction, known as the Province 
of Massachusetts Bay — it was expressly enjoined that the 
inhabitants thereof should be " so religiously, peaceably, and 
civilly governed, that, by good life and orderly conversation, 
they might promote the knowledge and obedience of the only 
true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith." 

In obedience to these royal decrees, reiterated and empha- 
sized in successive utterances, our earlier and later legislation, 
covering nearly half a century of our own Precinct history, 
provided in each instance, and in almost identical words, that 
the inhabitants of towns and precincts (and I quote the stat- 
ute phraseology) should take " due care, from time to time, to be 
constantly provided of an able, learned, orthodox minister or 
ministers, of good conversation, to dispense the Word of God 
to them," and "to be sufficiently supported and maintained by 
the inhabitants thereof, according to their estate and ability." 
In case of default, it was provided that the county court 
should "take effectual care to procure and settle a minister 
qualified as aforesaid, and order the charge for such minister's 
maintenance to be levied upon the inhabitants." 

In addition to his salary, a minister was entitled by law to 
a suitable parsonage, or its equivalent ; also to exemption from 
taxes on property or estate owned ; and the parsonage priv- 
ileges were to descend to the possession and use of his suc- 
cessors. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 93 

Even the school-master, whom every town or precinct was 
compelled to employ and support, was required to be an 
"orthodox school-master, a discreet person, of good conver- 
sation, and well instructed in the tongues." 

Profanity and Sabbath-breaking were promptly and severely 
punished. Desecration of the Lord's Day, now permissively 
an established custom, involved then, for each offense, a fine 
of five shillings, or twelve hours' imprisonment, or two hours' 
sitting in stocks or cages in some public place. The picture 
may be completed by imagining our modern Sunday excur- 
sionist, or Sunday practitioner of the bicycle craze, doing 
service in stocks or cage in front of our City Hall. 

It was under such prestige and influence that Newton 
inherited and maintained for so long a period her Puritanic 
character and observance. 

Prior to its partition by the establishment of the West 
Precinct, and the organization of the First Baptist Church and 
Society, at Newton Centre, two years later, the whole town 
was a precinct in primitive and legal form. In other words, 
the whole town constituted the territorial jurisdiction of a 
single ecclesiastical society, and every taxable resident was 
annually assessed for the support of its ministry ; except that, 
under a statute of 1742, the tax assessed on any attendant or 
member of the Church of England residing within the Pre- 
cinct was payable to that Church. 

Under these conditions of secular and spiritual partnership, 
a town, precinct, or parish became a sort of financial sponsor 
of the Church, providing for its temporal needs, and officiating 
as its legal representative. In partially modified form, the 
same relations between Parish and Church are still perpetu- 
ated. 

From its incorporation, October 7, 1778, to the organization 
of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, at Newton Lower Falls, in 
18 1 2 — a period of thirty-four years — this West Precinct 
constituted the territorial jurisdiction of a single ecclesiastical 
society ; though the act of incorporation permitted any person 



94 Second Co?igregational Church, Newton. 

living on either side of the line to belong to whichever parish 
he might elect, by filing notice thereof with the Secretary of 
the Commonwealth within six months. Persons subsequently 
desiring exemption from assessment for the support of the 
Precinct ministry were rigidly examined, in order to deter- 
mine whether other than religious or denominational consid- 
erations had prompted their petition. At the annual Precinct 
meeting in 1786 it was voted to exempt seven petitioners, 
attendants or members of other churches, and "also Aaron 
Draper, if the assessors should find he had been baptized by 
p lunging r 

As originally set off, our Precinct was bounded on the 
south, west, and north by Charles River, its eastern boundary 
commencing at Charles River on the south, about an eighth 
of a mile west of Echo Bridge, and running in a nearly 
straight course through Newtonville to the Watertown line, 
thus including about one third of the then area of Newton. 
The organization within its original territory of fourteen of 
the now thirty-one religious societies of Newton has of course 
reduced the once extended Precinct to the limit of an ordinary 
parish. 

On the 10th of November, 1778, the Precinct was formally 
organized by the election of officers, as required by law. 
Earnest and efficient measures were immediately initiated for 
the permanent maintenance of religious worship, which from 
that time to the present has been sustained without interrup- 
tion. Incorporated as the " West Precinct of Newton," it 
gradually came to be styled, without statute authority, as 
" The Second Congregational Society of Newton" — the 
name naturally originating from that of the Church con- 
nected with it. Accordingly, in 1869, the Legislature, by 
special enactment, confirmed the latter name as the future 
legitimate title of the Precinct. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 95 



MEETING-HOUSES. 

For a hundred years prior to 1764 the only established 
place for public worship in Newton was in the southeastern 
part of the town, now Newton Centre, where also were held 
the meetings for town business, the latter as late as 1830. 
For their own convenience, the few families residing in this 
section of the town began, as early as 1760, to hold neighbor- 
hood meetings, which finally resulted in the establishment of 
separate religious services during the winter seasons. Soon 
a building spot was purchased, a subscription raised, and a 
meeting-house was finally erected in 1764, though not finished 
for several years thereafter. Its audience-room presented, at 
first, only a bare floor, furnished with plain wooden benches 
for sittings. Carpeting, upholstery, and artistic adornment 
were strangers in that humble sanctuary. 

Later years brought a demand for better accommodations, 
and what in those days were termed "pew-spots" were meas- 
ured off and sold from time to time, the purchasers erecting 
their own pews. Thus, step by step, rude benches gave place, 
on floor and in gallery, to square pews with turn-up seats. It 
would seem that few could afford even such luxury, for when 
the Church was organized in 1781 many of the benches were 
still in use. In that year it was voted to sell half of the 
remaining "seat-ground" on the floor of the house, and that 
" pew-spots " be put up single at public vendue at £$ each, 
silver money; but it was not till 1804 that the last of the 
"pew-spots" found sale. 

And this was the second meeting-house erected in Newton, 
and the first in what, after years of controversy and oppo- 
sition, became the incorporated West Precinct. It was a 
plain, unpretentious, uncouth, two-story structure, 36 by 40 
feet (one authority says 30 by 43, another 30 by 40), and 
stood where now runs the passageway between the present 
house and the City Hall. 

A ground-plan of the original edifice, with interesting rem- 



g6 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

iniscences, contributed by our venerated friend, Mr. Seth 
Davis, shows a one-story porch as the front entrance, on the 
side of the building facing the street. In 1794 two other 
porches, each two stories high, were added, one on the east, 
the other on the west end. Leaving out of view its recent 
front and rear extensions, it is a noticeable coincidence that 
the location of the three porches of our present City Hall 
(formerly Town House), the nucleus of which was this same 
old meeting-house, corresponds with the location of the three 
porches of the latter, though no part of their material, and 
perhaps nothing of their present style of architecture, appear 
in the former. 

In 1799 Edward Cushing presented the Precinct with a 
suitable stove for warming the meeting-house. Previous to 
that year, the old-time foot-stoves, supplied with coals from 
home fires, were the only means of warmth for the shivering 
congregation in winter months. 

The indispensable horse-sheds held position in a row extend- 
ing eastward, across the site of the present edifice ; and it is 
remembered by Mr. Davis that, by reason of gales and of 
certain mysterious midnight agencies, they were not always as 
upright as church horse-sheds might and should have been. 

About this time, the palmy days of the beadle and tithing- 
man had begun to wane; but a present member of this 
Church recalls the imposing presence of good old Sexton 
Benjamin Jennison, who for many years was wont to peram- 
bulate and guard the old meeting-house on Sundays, with 
head wrapped or crowned in a prodigious red bandana, the 
observed of all, and the terror of rogueish boys and girls, who 
in those days were duly corraled in gallery seats. 

We have very little authentic history of the religious serv- 
ices held in that primitive edifice during the seventeen years 
preceding the organization of the Church ; but we do know 
that the worshipers were few and poor, and that prudential 
reasons induced resort to the employment of a minister to 
teach the public school and preach to them on winter Sab- 



One Hundredth Anniversary. gy 

baths. Who officiated in this introductory ministration we 
do not now know, but results fully warrant the presumption 
that they were devout Christian workers. 

The subsequent history of church improvement and en- 
largement is briefly cited. The old house was frequently 
subjected to a new revision, but not materially changed, out- 
wardly or inwardly, till 1 812— 13. It was then moved back; 
twelve or fourteen feet were added to the front, with a belfry 
surmounting the porch, but minus a bell till 1828; the inte- 
rior was for the most part newly seated, and a richer pulpit 
and larger gallery were substituted for the old. At this time 
the two end porches were removed and sold, the western 
porch becoming a portion of the house now standing near 
the Boston and Albany Railroad depot, at the western corner 
of Highland and Margin Streets ; and the eastern, purchased 
by Colonel Joseph Fuller, was added to the residence now 
occupied by his grandson, Mr. George Fuller. 

In 1 83 1 the house was again remodeled, galleries removed, 
square pews gave place to slips, and small windows without 
blinds to large ones with blinds. In 1832 the basement was 
transformed into a Vestry. In 1838 other important additions 
and improvements were made. Ten years later, on the 26th 
of March, 1848, public worship was held for the last time in 
the old, historic meeting-house, which, after eighty-four years 
of consecration to the worship of God, had been sold to the 
town. Its subsequent enlargement and use as a Town House, 
and latterly as a City Hall, suggests interesting reminiscences 
of its history. 

Its successor, the house in which we are now assembled, had 
been commenced during the previous year, and was dedicated 
March 29, 1848, three days after the congregation had taken 
leave of the former. Since then the present edifice has been 
several times remodeled and improved, its audience-room and 
its vestry becoming each time more convenient and attractive. 
The little, plain, half-finished meeting-house of 1764 would 



98 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

stand side by side in strange and almost incredible contrast 
with its commodious and graceful successor of 1881. 

PRECINCT, OR PARISH, FINANCES, ETC. 

The common financial experiences of religious societies are 
no exception in this history. Taxation and subscription, 
deficit and debt, have been its inevitable concomitants. But 
with all these, the Parish and Church live and prosper. 

Turning back a hundred years, we find it difficult to deter- 
mine the actual gold or silver value of appropriations made 
for Parish expenditures, because of the great depreciation 
and fluctuation of the then circulating medium. The annual 
appropriations for all purposes from 1778 to 1798 varied from 
£100 to ,£4,000, the value of which, in gold or silver, may be 
stated to have ranged from about $300 to $475. From 1798 
to the settlement of Mr. Gilbert, in 1828, the annual appro- 
priations ranged from $360 to $400, in gold or silver cur- 
rency. 

The exceptional illustration of the actual money value of 
one of the early Parish appropriations, referred to in the 
Historical Address to which we have just listened, occurred 
in 1 78 1. At the annual meeting the sum of £4,000, old 
emission, was appropriated for the year's expenses. This 
sounds large, inasmuch as £4,000 represent about $20,000 
in our day. But before the taxes for that year were levied, a 
new emission appeared, whereupon the Parish reconsidered 
its previous action, and appropriated £100 of the latter; thus 
showing that £1 of the new was worth £40 of the old issue. 
In other words, to raise about $300 in gold or silver value, it 
took £4,000 of the old, or £100 of the new. On the same 
basis of computation, the minister employed to supply the 
pulpit at £18 a Sabbath, old emission, in 1779, must have 
realized about a dollar and a half for his Sabbath service. 

At the commencement of Mr. Greenough's ministry, it was 
stipulated that £180 should be paid him in three annual 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 99 

installments of £60 each, as a settlement consideration ; and 
an annual salary of £70 in lawful silver money, or other 
money equivalent, estimated in rye at 4s. a bushel, corn at 3^., 
beef at 2d. and 2/*. a pound, and pork at 3d. and 2/!, in which 
commodities the inhabitants were allowed to pay their assess- 
ments. To the annual salary were added fifteen cords of 
wood, its money part being subsequently increased to ^80, 
and finally to ;£ioo; the whole, money and wood, ranging in 
actual value from about $275 to $375 annually. 

In those years the pew-rents were quite generally paid in 
rye, corn, and other produce, at stipulated prices, and this 
practice continued till 1797. The produce received for taxes 
and rents was turned into cash by sale at public auction. In 
1 78 1 the corn sold for $62 a bushel, in the depreciated cur- 
rency of that time. 

But without prolonged citation of financial details, it may 
suffice to say that, with the growth of population, the exten- 
sion of business interests, the enhanced cost of labor and 
living, and the increasing demand for enlarged and better 
church accommodations, so notably developed within the last 
half century, there came of course a corresponding increase 
in Parish expenditure. In every decade, during the whole 
hundred years, changes and experiments in ways and means 
have been tried for the easier maintenance of public worship. 
Under every pastorate subscriptions and Sabbath collections 
have been resorted to, either as substitutes for, or as helps to, 
the current systems of taxation. 

The first experiment of a direct tax on pews was tried in 
1838, but was not a success. For several years thereafter 
subscriptions and loans supplied needed funds. On the com- 
pletion of this edifice, in 1848, which was nearly paid for by 
the sale of pews, taxation of the latter was adopted, and, with 
the exception of two or three years of subscription, was con- 
tinued till 1878, when the present system of voluntary weekly 
offerings was introduced. In two or three instances, in former 



ioo Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

years, large debts secured by mortgage of the Church prop- 
erty were canceled by voluntary effort. By the same means, 
also, have all our most important improvements, interior and 
exterior, been secured ; and it is a pleasure to add that, with 
our present methods of finance, we pay, and propose to pay, 
as we go. 

During the first twenty years of our Precinct history, the 
division of the " ministerial and Parish wood-lots," so called, 
and the definite establishment of Precinct lines, were matters 
of yearly dispute between the two societies. Committees of 
conference were chosen year after year, but without har- 
monious result. In one year it was voted to "spot the trees" 
which each Parish might cut. In another year the selectmen 
were called in as referees, and their award that "two third 
parts of the wood, when cut, should be for and toward the 
support of the Rev. Jonathan Hosmer's fire, and the other 
third part for and toward the support of the Rev. William 
Greenough's fire," was accepted for awhile. Finally an appeal 
to the Legislature to define the Precinct lines, and a joint 
committee with power to settle the wood-lot controversy, 
resulted, in 1800, in an amicable adjustment of all differences ; 
and mother and daughter have ever since been united in 
bonds of peace, good-will, and Christian fellowship. 

It should not be forgotten that both Precinct and Church 
have been, from time to time, the recipients of acceptable 
and valuable gifts. A month before the organization of the 
Church, in 1 78 1, Nathan Fuller, as expressed in his deed, "in 
consideration of his love and esteem for the West Precinct, 
and also sixpence to him in hand paid," conveyed for its use 
as a burial-ground an acre and a half of land — the same in 
which so many of the former members of this Church and 
Parish have their last resting-place on earth, among them its 
first pastor. 

Appropriate reference has already been made to the gen- 
erous legacy bequeathed to this Church by one of its mem- 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 101 

bers — the late Miss Sarah Baxter — amounting to $5,000, 
which, increased by individual subscriptions to $8,000, secured 
a parsonage for the use of its pastor and his successors. 
Other remembrances of similar character might be named; 
but time does not permit. 

CONCLUSION. 

In closing this imperfect sketch, an impressive suggestion 
forces itself upon us. We now enter on a new century. 
Upon us and upon our successors rests the high responsibility 
of maintaining, through all its years, the Christian prestige 
and integrity of this divinely favored Church and Parish. 
May the faith of our fathers still live in these places which 
know them no more, and may their example continue to 
inspire and adorn the history which may be recounted one 
hundred years hence. 



fflUSIGAL ^ISTOI^Y. 



v 

BY REV. INCREASE N. TARBOX, D. D. 



The period contemplated by our celebration today covers 
an exact century. It might seem unsuitable, therefore, to 
extend our survey of the past beyond these boundaries of a 
hundred years ; but in recalling the old singing customs 
which have prevailed in the New England churches, it will 
be more interesting and profitable if we take a very rapid 
review of our whole history, in this respect, since the Pilgrims 
landed at Plymouth in 1620. We shall then be able to under- 
stand the several steps by which we have reached our present 
position. 

When the Pilgrims came out of Holland to seek a home on 
these wild shores, they were careful to bring with them the 
Version of the Book of Psalms prepared and published eight 
years before by Mr. Henry Ainsworth, pastor of the English 
church at Amsterdam. Mr. Ainsworth was a ripe scholar 
and an eloquent preacher, and his book was in general use 
among those English congregations in Holland which pre- 
ferred to live as exiles in this foreign land rather than be 
deprived of their religious liberty in their own land. Mr. 
Ainsworth's little book was usually bound in with the Bibles 
then in use. No doubt the Pilgrims sang these songs of 
Zion in the cabin and on the deck of the Mayflower during 
their long and perilous journey over the deep. 

" Amid the storm they sang, 
And the stars heard, and the sea ; " 



104 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

and when they reached their new home, and set up their 
simple Sabbath worship on these wintry shores, they at once 
began to " sing the Lord's song in a strange land." This 
book of Ainsworth's continued in use among the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth for more than seventy years — until 1692. 

In like manner, when the Puritans, fleeing from persecution 
in England, came pouring into the Massachusetts Bay, in the 
years 1629 and 1630 and onward, they brought with them, 
bound up also in their Bibles, the Version of the Psalms of 
Stemhold and Hopkins. This book had been in use among 
the parish churches in England for more than half a century 
before the Puritans came hither. The work of versifying the 
Psalms was begun by Thomas Sternhold, a godly member of 
the court of the corrupt Henry VIII. Before his time psalms 
and hymns had not been sung in the worship of the English 
churches. There had been slowly growing up, for centuries, on 
the continent of Europe, a system of ecclesiastical music ; but 
in England it was not until the time of Henry VIII that the 
idea of singing metrical versions of the Psalms by the con- 
gregations had been conceived. Indeed, Sternhold himself 
had no idea of preparing a book for public worship, when he 
set about making his metrical version. It was rather to fur- 
nish some good and pleasant songs, of a sober and religious 
nature, which might be sung about the court and in the 
homes of the people, in place of the trifling and ribald songs 
then in common use. But his work was taken up and carried 
into the churches. This congregational singing was then a 
great novelty, and was much enjoyed by the people. Stern- 
hold himself had versified only about forty of the Psalms, 
when he died in 1549. One John Hopkins followed up the 
work, and so the book came to be called the Version of Stem- 
hold and Hopkins. 

But even these two men did not finish the task. Thomas 
Norton versified twenty-seven Psalms, which were added to 
the collection; and others lent their aid in a lesser degree. 
By the year 1562 the work was done. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 105 

This book was generally used, in the early years, among 
the churches in the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, and in 
the churches of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies 
which were kindred to those of Massachusetts. As these 
people, almost all of them, came out of the parish churches 
of England, they brought along with them to these shores the 
same books which they had been using in their old home. 

Ten years after the first settlements in the Bay, it was 
determined to have a New England Psalm-Book, native and 
original. Richard Mather, of Dorchester, with John Eliot 
and Thomas Welde, of Roxbury, were appointed to prepare 
this new version. The work was finished and published in 
1640, and was the first book printed in New England. It 
was at once introduced into some churches, and, after run- 
ning seven or eight years, was revised by President Henry 
Dunster, of Harvard College, assisted by Richard Lyon, a 
scholar and poet, then fresh over from England. The first 
edition, published in 1640, is known as the Bay Psalm-Book. 
Copies of this earliest edition are now exceedingly rare. If 
a well-preserved copy is offered for sale, it brings usually from 
#1,200 to $1,500. But the work in general, throughout all its 
editions, which were many, held its place in New England for 
more than a hundred years. It passed through many editions, 
and was in common use in the New England churches, until 
some time after the middle of the last century, when it was 
gradually superseded by the Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts. 
Yea, more ; this New England Book had quite a currency for 
a long period among the churches of England and Scotland. 

It must not be inferred from this outline sketch that the 
changes thus noticed from one book to another took place by 
any sudden and uniform law. We have already said that the 
mother church of Plymouth kept and used Ainsworth's ver- 
sion for more than seventy years. Among the churches of 
the Massachusetts Bay and of the Connecticut colonies, 
some doubtless changed from Sternhold a7id Hopkins to the 
New England Version, as soon as the book was ready, while 



106 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

others kept on with their old English book for many years. 
It may safely be said that by the year 1700 the churches of 
New England generally were using the New England Book 
for their Sabbath worship. 

So far as poetical effects, good taste, easy, rhythmical flow 
were concerned, there was certainly no improvement when 
our fathers turned from the books which they had brought 
from the Old World to their own New England version. We 
will give the opening lines of the version of the 23d Psalm 
("The Lord is my Shepherd," etc.), first as they stand in 
Sternhold and Hopkins, and then in the New England Book. 
This is the way Sternhold puts it : 

" 1. My Shepherd is the living Lord, 
Nothing, therefore, I need : 

2. In pastures faire, with waters calm, 

He sets me for to feed. 

3. He did conuert and glad my soule, 

And brought my mind in frame 
To walk in paths of righteousness 
For his most holy name." 

This, of course, is antique, plain, and simple ; but the lan- 
guage is tasteful and the movement easy and flowing. 
In the New England Book the version stands thus : 

" 1. The Lord to me a Shepherd is, 
Want, therefore, shall not I : 

2. He in the folds of tender grass 

Doth make me down to lie : 

3. He leads me to the waters still ; 

Restore my soul doth he ; 
In paths of righteousness he will, 
For his name's sake, lead me." 

This is comparatively uncouth, rough, irregular. But the 
good people of New England, in that early generation, were 
ready to sacrifice almost everything else to keep the exact 
words of the Bible. The glory of the New England Book, 
not only in this country, but among the godly people, too, of 
England and Scotland, was that it kept very, very close to the 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 107 

original. To do this, the lines often went upon all fours, with 
a hop, skip, and jump motion, and, regarded as poetry, were 
simply horrible. Sternhold had said in the second line of the 
stanza quoted, "Nothing, therefore, I need." That is the 
exact thought ; but the words were too unlike the words of 
the Bible ; so the New England Version fixed it exactly : 
" Want, therefore, shall not I." 

Having thus considered briefly the chief books of psalmody 
used in the New England church worship for a hundred and 
thirty years or more from the beginning, let us now for a little 
time return upon our track, and consider the style of music 
to which these psalms were wedded. 

Scattered along at intervals through Sternhold and Hop- 
kins s Version of the Psalms were some twenty-five tunes, or 
airs, so placed that the singers could easily keep the notes 
and the words at the same time before the eye. The usual 
arrangement in Sternhold and Hopkins, as also in the other 
versions which we have named, was that of double or eight- 
line stanzas, in common meter. Occasionally a psalm was 
versified into long meter or some other form ; but the law, 
almost uniformly, was to cast the lines into this common meter, 
double. Those famous lines from Sternhold in which our 
fathers took so much delight for their grand and rolling move- 
ment will illustrate the point before us: 

" The Lord descended from above, 

And bowed the heavens high, 
And underneath his feet he cast 

The darkness of the sky ; » 

On cherub and on cherubim 

Full royally he rode, 
And on the wings of all the winds 

Went flying all abroad." 

The tunes which accompanied the psalms in Sternhold and 
Hopkins, as also in Ainsworth's books, were simple airs, to be 
sung by the male and female voices in unison. They were 
grave, slow-moving, sedate, but not without a certain antique 
charm. A tune of the Moody and Sankey order, especially if 



108 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

it were one of the more free and lawless, would have wrought 
strange effects in the old New England congregations. These 
ancient airs had no names like our modern church tunes. 
They commonly had a certain designation, in Latin, derived 
from the first words of the Psalm : " I will exalt thee " — 
"Exaltabo te ; " "O give thanks unto God" — "Jubilate 
Deo." If one finds himself humming this last-named air, he 
will soon discover that it is Martin Luther's tune — the veri- 
table Old Hundred just as we sing it today. 

The first generations in New England, in their congrega- 
tional singing, sang in an orderly way by note. The Pilgrims, 
with the Book of Ainsworth, and the Puritans of Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut, with their Stemhold and Hopkins, had 
these plain and simple tunes directly before their eye as they 
sang. 

But when the New England Book was published it was not 
furnished in like manner with tunes. At first people remem- 
bered the old airs which they had so long sung, and they sang 
them from memory. The custom also prevailed of copying 
off some of the more favorite old airs, and placing them in 
the new book, for convenient use. But by degrees the knowl- 
edge of written music began to fade away from the minds of 
the people. The airs which were sung in the churches had 
gradually narrowed down to a very few, and all the rest were 
totally forgotten. Those that still remained in use were sung 
ad libitum according to the taste or fancy of the singer. 
Choristers magnified their office by putting in, every one, his 
own original quirk or quaver to diversify the prevailing oddity, 
until at length it came to pass that a certain tune sung in 
one congregation would be so unlike the same tune sung in 
another congregation, that it would hardly retain its identity. 
This they called singing by rote. If the people of this gen- 
eration should pass by a church and hear such strange sounds 
issuing from it as were heard in all the early years of the last 
century throughout New England, they would be likely to 
conclude that an Irish wake, or wail for the dead, was 
going on. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 109 

Things at last came to such a pass that it was hard to find 
the ground whereon to stand to work a reform. There is no 
conservatism so stubborn and undying as profound ignorance. 
People generally throughout New England had come to believe 
that there was no such thing as singing by note, or, if there 
was, that it was something exceedingly wrong and wicked. 
A writer in the New England Chronicle, in 1723, said : " Truly 
I have a great jealousy that if we once begin to sing by note, 
the next thing will be to pray by rule, and preach by rule ; 
and then comes popery." 

There was a book published at Andover some twenty years 
ago, prepared by Drs. Park and Phelps, assisted by Dr. Fur- 
ber, of Newton; it is entitled, Hymns and Choirs; or the 
Matter and the Manner of the Service of Song in the House of 
the Lord. An extract from this book (pp. 355-6) will help us 
to see the state of things in New England in the early part of 
the last century : " The period of greatest musical degeneracy 
was reached at about the year 1720. At that time there was 
so little knowledge of music that few congregations could sing 
more than three or four tunes ; and these were sung so badly, 
that to those who possessed any degree of musical culture the 
singing was intolerable. The best and ablest ministers in the 
colonies, including such men as the Mathers, Edwards, Stod- 
dard, Symmes of Bradford, Wise, Walter, Thatcher, D wight 
of Woodstock, and Prince of the Old South Church in Bos- 
ton, devoted their energies to the cause of musical reform. 
They wrote sermons with reference to it. They exchanged 
pulpits with one another, that the sermons which each one 
had prepared might be preached to different congregations. 
Associations of ministers met to hear essays upon the sub- 
ject, to discuss the topics embraced by them, and to indorse, 
with numerous signatures, their publication. The recom- 
mendatory preface to Mr. Walter s Singing-Book, published in 
1 721, and calling upon all, especially the young, 'to accom- 
plish themselves with skill to sing the songs of the Lord,' was 
signed by fourteen names of leading men, mostly ministers, 



no Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

and among them two who have filled the office of President of 
Harvard College, and three others who had been elected to 
that office." 

Though many leading ministers wrought thus earnestly to 
bring about a reform, it must in truth be said that very many 
of the ministers, and some of them men of no little prom- 
inence, were as much opposed to any reform as were the body 
of the people. As we look back upon those days, it seems 
to us impossible that such a stormy wrath should have been 
kindled all over New England about so innocent a matter. 
Reference has already been made to Rev. Mr. Walter's book. 
The following extract is taken from it, to show the condition 
of things against which he had to contend : 

" About the commencement of the eighteenth century, 
music had been so much neglected that few congregations 
could sing more than four. or five tunes, and these few had 
become so mutilated, tortured, and twisted, that the psalm- 
singing had become a mere disorderly noise, left to the mercy 
of every unskillful throat to chop and alter, twist and change, 
according to their odd fancy — sounding like five hundred 
tunes scored out at the same time, and so little in time that 
they were often one or two words apart ; so hideous as to be 
beyond expression, and so drawling that we sometimes had to 
pause twice on one word to take breath. And the decline 
had been so gradual, that the very confusion and discord 
seemed to have become grateful to their ears, while melody 
sung in tune and time was offensive ; and when it was heard 
that tunes were sung by note, they argued that the new way 
was an unknown tongue, not melodious as the old, made dis- 
turbance in churches, was needless, a contrivance of the 
designing to get money, required too much time, and made 
the young disorderly; old way good enough." 

The lonely New England life on the farms, through all 
those early generations, bred up a tough and tremendous 
individuality, which was exceedingly good in holding out and 
fighting through revolutionary wars, but was not so good in 



One Hundredth Anniversary. in 

locating meeting-houses and deciding what was good church 
music. That conservatism which knows no other law than to 
look back a very few years, taking this short period for all 
time, and then chanting the old refrain, "As it was in the 
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. 
Amen," is a very hard power to deal with. Thousands of 
men and women devoutly believed that there was no other 
proper way to sing praises, in the worship of God's house, 
than in this dreary, drawling, discordant style, which was 
better fitted to disperse a mob than to charm the soul of the 
worshiper. 

For a period of forty or fifty years in our New England 
history, as this matter came up in one church after another, 
an incredible amount of ill-feeling was enkindled between the 
two parties, one pressing for singing by rule — i. e., by note — 
and the other contending that singing by rote, in the way the 
fathers sang, was the only true and Christian method. In 
Old Braintree, where the famous Rev. Samuel Niles was the 
minister from 171 1 till his death, in 1762, when this matter 
had to be decided the minister took the conservative side with 
great energy. When the reforming party had so far prevailed 
that note singing, on a given Sabbath, was to be introduced 
into the public worship, Mr. Niles refused to be present to 
perform his duties as preacher. He was sent for, but refused 
to come until this abomination should be removed. Council 
after council was called to settle the difficulty ; but all in vain, 
until the last council decided to strike a happy compromise, 
and suggested that, in singing, half of the tune should be 
sung in the old way, by rote, and half in the new way, by note. 
Undoubtedly the council, in this action, meant to cure the 
difficulty by ridicule. But in other churches a real compro- 
mise was effected by voting to sing one half the day in the old 
way and the other half in the new way. And so, by noise 
and debate, and long, wearisome strife, at length, near the 
middle of the last century, the churches had generally adopted 
the new mode of singing by note, and the congregations had 



112 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

the tunes before them. About this time, also, Dr. Watts s 
Psalms and Hymns began to displace the New England Book, 
which, in the Old World and the New, had been through some 
fifty editions. Before the Revolutionary War, Dr. Watts's 
book had been very generally introduced into our churches, 
though in some of them the old New Engla?id Book still 
remained, and in others had given place to Tate and Brady. 
This version of the Psalms by Tate and Brady had found its 
way into the parish churches of England as early as 1695, and 
had largely displaced the work of Sternhold a?td Hopkins 
there ; but in this country Tate and Brady did not begin to 
come in, to any extent, before the middle of the last century, 
and then had but a very limited and brief career. 

We come down, then, to about the opening scenes of the 
Revolution. In the rapid survey we have taken we have 
ranged over a period of one hundred and fifty years from the 
landing at Plymouth. During all this time there has been 
no choir of any kind in New England, but only congrega- 
tional singing, simple and pure, and in the middle period bad 
enough. This survey brings us down close upon the borders 
of the time when this church came into existence. About 
this period a man arose — whether for good or evil we will not 
now stop to inquire — who wrought a thorough change in the 
singing customs of New England. This was William Bill- 
ings, who was born in Boston in 1746, and was by trade a 
tanner. Early in life he manifested a deep interest in music. 
He became a musical teacher, and was the first man, it is 
said, in this country to become a musical composer. Up to 
that time every tune that was sung in our churches had been 
made in the Old World. When Billings gave himself to 
musical composition he soon became a very bold and rapid 
worker. One of his first performances was to set musical 
accompaniments to certain patriotic songs, which were sung 
with great delight and enthusiasm by the Revolutionary sol- 
diers around their camp-fires. It is said that in this way he 
did much to stir patriotic impulses. But his larger work was 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 113 

to prepare tunes for church service, and in this he certainly 
deserves credit for originality. His system was a wide depart- 
ure from anything which had been before known on these 
shores. The very novelty of his work attracted attention, 
and it soon became popular. In the Andover Book, from 
which we have already quoted, we find the following passage : 
"A second period of great musical degeneracy was occa- 
sioned, not, as before, by a total neglect of musical culture, 
but by the introduction of the coarse, noisy tunes of Billings. 
These tunes brought with them the doom of congregational 
singing, and a general perversion of musical taste." With 
this sentence we agree in part, and only in part. We regard 
the revolution wrought by Billings as an important step, in 
breaking up the old and bringing in a new and better state of 
things. The tunes of Billings had but a brief run, compara- 
tively, in the churches ; but they awakened a wide-spread 
enthusiasm, and they remain to this day the grand resort for 
old folks' concerts. They occupy a pleasant background in 
our musical reminiscences. They enkindled, for the first 
time in our New England history, a genuine interest and zeal 
in matters of church music. 

Still, the tunes and the new singing customs of Billings did 
not establish themselves in our congregations without great 
opposition on the part of the more conservative people. For 
the proper performance of the church music of Billings, with 
its rapid movements, and the endless play of the fugue, which 
was one of its marked features, choirs became necessary. 
This was a great innovation. For about one hundred and 
fifty years from the landing at Plymouth, the singing of New 
England, as we have before said, had been purely congre- 
gational, and that, too, of the plainest and simplest type. 
Now, the best singers in the congregation must be brought 
together and massed in a compact and organized choir, with 
its several parts, and the rest of the congregation became 
simple hearers and spectators. Billings also thought that a 
bass-viol would be a useful accompaniment to the choir. This 



114 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

was a . most audacious thought. Many of the godly people 
throughout New England were thoroughly shocked at the 
idea of bringing the " big fiddle," as it was called, into the 
house of God. Women fainted, and men walked indignantly 
out of the house to bear testimony against this outrage. In 
one of the Massachusetts parishes an old and greatly respected 
man was so annoyed and troubled by the bass-viol, that he 
could not consistently attend church. That he might not be 
entirely deprived of church privileges, a vote was passed, and 
recorded on the books, that, out of regard to his feelings, the 
bass-viol should not be used on preparatory-lecture days and 
communion Sabbaths. This was in the town of Barre. It is 
a familiar anecdote, that of the old minister who had opposed 
this bass-viol business as long as he could, but had finally 
been forced to yield to the innovating spirit of the younger 
people. He thought he would have his small revenge, never- 
theless ; so when the bass-viol came in on a Sunday morning, 
in giving out the first hymn he said, "You may fiddle and 
sing the sixty-fifth Psalm." Up to that period in our New 
England history, there had been no musical instrument in the 
churches of larger proportions than a simple pitch-pipe, and 
even this pitch-pipe alarmed an old Scotch elder in New York. 
It had just been introduced into his church, and the chorister 
was gently breathing into it to get the key, when the good 
elder heard it, and, rising in his seat, said, " Awa' with your 
fiddle from the house of God." 

In the year 1780, in the old town of Windsor, Ct., the 
question came up, in parish meeting, whether a pitch-pipe 
might be brought into the meeting-house to assist in giving 
the key. The vote was in the negative. 

The introduction of choirs also dishonored and put out of 
office the men who used to stand up in front of the pulpit 
and line off the Psalms. This duty in the earlier days per- 
tained to the office of the ruling elder. When the ruling 
elder ceased, it fell to the lot, usually, of one of the deacons 
to perform this service. It is not true, however, that this 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 115 

custom of lining off the Psalms for singing prevailed in the 
earliest New England generations. We know that it was not 
introduced at Plymouth until the year 1680; and probably in 
the churches of the Massachusetts Bay, and in those of Con- 
necticut, this custom came in about the same time. Two 
causes especially tended to introduce the practice. One was, 
that some in the congregations who could sing could not read ; 
and the other, that, in the general poverty of the people, 
psalm-books had become very scarce. The fact seems to be 
well established, that, for about one hundred years before this 
church was organized (i.e., from 1680 to 1780), the practice 
did prevail quite generally throughout New England, of lining 
off the hymns. The men who performed this service were 
regarded as occupying places of honor ; and when the change 
to choirs came about, these men, naturally, did not look with 
much favor upon the new custom. It is related that in the 
Old South Church at Worcester, on the Sabbath when the 
choir was first to make its appearance, the deacon who lined 
the psalm did not propose to resign his office meekly. When 
the psalm was given out from the pulpit he stood up as of old 
and began to line it off ; but the chorister, from his elevated 
post in the gallery catching a view of the situation, gave the 
signal to his choir, and, with rapid movement and triumphant 
noise such as a tune of the Billings order would furnish, they 
drowned out the poor deacon altogether. Indignant at his 
discomfiture, he took his hat and walked out of the meeting- 
house, thus bearing his testimony against this rude and radical 
innovation. This happened in the year 1779. 

This new custom of choir singing bred up a peculiar set of 
men in the persons of church choristers. There were no 
organs in those days. The bass-viol came in slowly, amid 
opposition, The pitch-pipe still continued largely in use, and 
the old chorister usually got the key from that, and then ran 
round with his voice in a warbling way to indicate to the 
several parts their starting-points ; and then, with much move- 
ment of the arms and head, he launched his choir off upon 



n6 Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 

the sea of sound. It was easy to be seen that a tremendous 
responsibility rested upon the chorister. If the treble or 
tenor or bass lagged, an earnest turning of the head, with the 
motions thereof, lent new inspiration, and restored the waning 
musical march. One of these old-time choristers who had 
faithfully served his generation, in this way, at length died. 
His Christian name was Stephen. In remembrance of his 
long service, some one wrote this as a fitting epitaph for his 
tomb-stone : 

" Stephen and time at length are even : 
Stephen beat time, and time beat Stephen." 

From what has thus been said, it will be seen that this 
church came into existence just when this great revolution 
in church music was well under way. William Billings was 
living in Boston, and was thirty-five years old, when this 
church was organized. He lived nineteen years afterward, 
dying at the age of fifty-four, in 1800. He published, during 
his comparatively short life, six collections of church tunes, 
mostly of his own composition. Mr. Billings has the reputa- 
tion, besides his other accomplishments, of keeping the first 
music store in this country. Oliver Holden, living in Charles- 
town, and dying there in 183 1, followed on in the same path, 
and became a somewhat extensive writer of church music, 
and was the author of several music-books. He wrote the 
tune Coronation, which abides more firmly than almost any 
other tune of the class which originated in that prolific 
period. 

In looking over our parish records, I am impressed with 
the fact that, during the hundred years of its existence, there 
does not appear to have been any good, stout, persistent 
quarrel* over the subject of church music. There are evi- 
dences, here and there, of some ruffling and temporary dis- 
turbance of the feelings, but nothing like an old-fashioned 
parish fight over this subject. At first thought, this seemed 
to betoken a lack of the full measure of New England energy 
among the people. Few are the churches of even a hundred 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 1 17 

years old whose records will not give evidence, somewhere 
along the line, of exceeding bitterness and strife over this 
subject. This state of peace may be owing to the fact that 
for fifty years good Father Greenough lived and guided the 
flock with such wisdom and discretion, that there are no signs 
of musical warfare discoverable on the record-books. 

It may be taken for granted, I think, that when this church 
started it started with a choir, and perhaps with a bass-viol. 
There was a bass-viol here some years later, as we shall see, 
and possibly it was here at the beginning. We may presume, 
probably, that the walls of the old church in the earliest years 
echoed to the notes of Majesty and Sherburne and Ocean and 
Exhortation C. M. and Exhortation L. M. } of Complaint, 
Montgomery, and the like. But the very earliest record I 
find about the church music was in connection with a parish 
meeting, March 20, 1798. Then it was 

"Voted, That Dr. Benjamin Cook and Colonel Thomas Durant, joined with the 
standing committee of the precinct, be vested with discretionary power to make 
such alterations in the seats of the front gallery, for the accommodation of the 
singers, as they may find expedient ; also, to prepare some secure place to keep 
the parish Cushing, Bible, and Bass Viol in." 

Here, clearly, was a bass-viol in 1798 ; and what its previous 
dangers and exposures may have been, one cannot say ; but 
henceforth the plan was to keep it safely. 

And here it is proper to say a word about the different 
musical instruments which have been used in the public wor- 
ship of this congregation. In the beginning was this simple 
old pitch-pipe which I am permitted to hold up to your view. 
There is nothing complicated about this. It gives the key of 
A very distinctly, as you will see ; and having that, if you are 
skillful, you may find what other key you like. When shown 
in contrast with the organ now before us, it must be confessed 
to be a very humble affair. Next came the bass-viol, of which 
we discover the first glimpse in 1798. Mr. Milo Lucas, who 
has through his life been intimately connected with the sing- 
ing interests of this congregation, testifies that at a period 



1 1 8 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

considerably later, in his early days, a flute and a violin had 
been allowed to creep in as companions to the bass-viol. 

The next step in the line of instruments was a melodeon, 
introduced some forty-five years ago. This gave place, while 
yet the old house of worship remained, to a small reed organ, 
and this, in its turn, to a pipe-and-reed organ, which remained 
in use till after the rebuilding of the present church edifice in 
1848, when the organ was introduced which was displaced 
last year. Our present excellent organ has recently been put 
in position. Its predecessor, by reason of age and other 
infirmities, had come to speak to us sometimes with a very 
uncertain sound. 

The next notice we find upon this general topic of singing 
is from the church records, as follows : 

" Apr. 1, 1803. The Church tarried after lecture. Voted, Solomon Flagg be 
desired to take the lead in singing in our public religious services on the 
Sabbath and at Communion." 

After this, time passed on for six years before it seemed 
needful to make any new entries upon the books. From the 
parish records at that time we find the following : 

" March 20, 1809. Voted, That the sum of fifty dollars be hereby appropriated 
for the improvement of psalm-singing. 

"Voted, That Mr. Ezra Fuller, Mr. Henry Craft, and Mr. Solomon Flagg be a 
committee to appropriate the aforesaid fifty dollars for the benefit of singing." 

Two years later we find the following : 

"March 18, 181 1. Voted, That the standing committee be and hereby are 
allowed to make any necessary alteration in the singers' seats." 

In the next year, March 16, 1812, the following record 
appears : 

" Voted, That thirty dollars of the present year's grant be appropriated to the 
encouragement of singing, and that Mr. Henry Craft, Mr. Solomon Flagg, and 
Mr. Ezra Fuller be a committee to apply the same for the said purpose, at their 
discretion." 

Similar votes appear from time to time in the years follow- 
ing. The "encouragement of singing" was effected prob- 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 119 

ably by hiring some singing-master to come and drill the 
young people. We will omit the items on the record-books 
after the last, until March 9, 1840, when the following action 
was taken : 

"Voted, That Nathl. Fuller, Jeremiah Allen, and Caleb M. Stimson be a 
committee to report at next meeting the expense of altering the singers' seats." 

"Apr. 21, 1851. Milo Lucas, H. L. Whiting, and Dr. J. H. Brown were 
appointed a singing committee, with instructions not to exceed $200 for the year, 
to sustain singing, which sum is to include books for the choir, etc." 

We will copy only one item more, and that marks an impor- 
tant point in the history of this church and congregation. 
This was April 4, 1859, and lies clearly within the memory of 
a large number of this congregation. It was during the min- 
istry of Mr. Little, a pastor greatly beloved. If I am not 
mistaken, the action was taken at his suggestion, but certainly 
with his hearty concurrence. The brief record reads as 
follows : 

" On motion of Dr. Clark (Dr. Joseph S. Clark), Voted, to adopt congrega- 
tional singing (unanimously)." 

This was twenty-two years ago, at a time when very few 
churches in these parts had adopted the congregational sys- 
tem. This church was a kind of pioneer in this matter. 
Coming to reside here, as I did in i860, the year after this 
system was adopted, I was impressed with the singing power 
which resided in the congregation. There was a large num- 
ber of families here abounding in good singers, able to sing 
independently, and not leaning one upon another. From that 
day until this there has been no general desire to go back on 
this record ; and though a few of our young singers now sit 
near the organ, they are there not as a choir in the old-fash- 
ioned sense, but for the help of the congregational singing. 

Turning now, for a moment, to the beginning of the present 
century, we may notice how the Billings and Holden style of 
music began to give way in the public worship of the Sab- 
bath, and tunes of a more solid and abiding character came in 
to take their place. Of all the men of this century, Lowell 



120 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

Mason had more to do, probably, than any other one man in 
turning public attention to a nobler style of church music. 
He himself composed, or arranged from old compositions, an 
immense number of tunes for this purpose, many of which 
still abide in honor. His influence, too, was widely felt in 
diffusing far abroad the habit of teaching children and youth 
generally to sing. The custom is now introduced almost uni- 
versally into our public schools, so that the great body of our 
children are taught to sing in early life. 

But we must not forget our indebtedness in this regard to 
the older nations of Europe. Music was not a plant indige- 
nous upon this western soil. Until we caught refining influ- 
ences from the Old World, the musical culture of this country 
remained in a comparatively crude condition. For the last 
half century America has been sitting at the feet of the Ger- 
man race — that nation of great composers. It was easy to 
learn of these Germans, for they were our fellow-citizens and 
neighbors. They make a very large element in our national 
population today. In every department of music, instru- 
mental and vocal, sacred and secular, they have taught us, 
and our people have shown themselves scholars apt to learn. 

Looking to the future, it cannot, we think, be doubted that 
the tendency will be more and more toward congregational 
singing in our churches. It is the true way, as it seems to us, 
for the service of song in the house of the Lord. Among 
nations more musical than we, this is the form for the free 
worship of the people. Travelers coming back to us from 
England and from Germany tell of the delight they find in the 
congregational singing of the strong and cultured churches. 
Even in this country there is now a very great multitude of 
churches that are firmly established in this way, and are never 
likely to go back from it. 



Sabbath School P^isipo^y. 

BY PROFESSOR EDWIN PIERCE. 

Who would suppose it would take the Christian Church 
eighteen hundred years to learn the value of the Sabbath 
school as an efficient helper in her work ? Yet it is a fact of 
history that the first Sabbath school was gathered by Robert 
Raikes, in Gloucester, England, in the year of our Lord 1781. 
Not till thirty years later did this new method of Christian 
work gain any recognition in America. 

The first Sabbath school in New England was formed in 
Beverly, Mass., in 18 10. Two years afterward, one was 
formed in Boston, and in a few years they were found in 
all parts of the State. Today there are in Massachusetts 
sixty thousand teachers and nearly four hundred thousand 
pupils engaged in such schools. 

We are here celebrating the one hundredth birth-day of 
this church. The Sabbath school is a child of the church, by 
and through which the church is in great part to perpetuate 
its own existence. The life and work of the Sabbath school 
has therefore an appropriate place in the history which is 
passing under review today. To me has been given the task 
and the honor of presenting on this occasion such facts of 
interest as can be found concerning this department of our 
church work. Unfortunately, no written records exist from 
which these facts can be gathered. But from a sermon pre- 
pared by our pastor, in 1869, and from conversation with 
persons connected with the school in different periods of its 



122 Second Congregational Church, Newtoii. 

history, some of whom were its first pupils and are with us 
tonight, I am able to submit the following statement as a 
substantially correct, though imperfect, history of the school. 

There once stood on Waltham Street, opposite the ground 
of the present Davis School building, a small, one-story, 
square-roofed school building. It now forms a portion of the 
brown dwelling close by the brook, in the rear of Mr. Ingra- 
ham's drug-store. At nine o'clock on a Sabbath morning in 
the spring of 1819, there gathered in that plain school-room 
Joseph Jackson, Joel Fuller, Sumner Fuller, Adolphus Smith, 
Elisabeth Smith, and Mary Stearns. With these assembled 
about thirty boys and girls, and then and there was held the 
first session of what we now call our Sabbath school. Those 
men and women saw that the children of West Newton 
needed to be better taught in the truths of God's word. 
There was a field for work which they had not tried. 

Let us not suppose, however, that there was any more need 
of a Sabbath school in West Newton then than there is now. 
The children of Christian parents were as well instructed in 
the Bible at their homes as such children are now, and the 
children of irreligious parents were no more neglected at 
home than they now are. If those Christian men and women 
are to be commended for what they there inaugurated, Chris- 
tian men and women of today are to be blamed if they are 
not equally ready to continue the work which has been 
handed down to them. 

It was the practice of this early school, at the close of the 
morning hour, to march in orderly procession to the church 
to attend public worship. It is well that this early practice of 
taking the children to the church service is still commendably 
characteristic of this congregation. The pastor did not, at 
first, give encouragement to this new departure, but said he 
would first see how the thing worked in Brother Homer's 
church at the Centre. His daughter, however, quite early 
became a teacher in the school. At that day helps to Bible 
study were by no means as accessible as they are now. The 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 123 

teachers went to their work equipped simply with the Bible 
and the hymn book, and from these the heads and the hearts 
of the scholars were stored with divine truth. 

The progress of the age has brought into the Sabbath 
school, as it has into every department of life, more machin- 
ery, more rattle and clatter of wheels, and more display, but 
possibly is not more effective in leading souls to Christ. 

Mr. Joseph Jackson, a teacher of a private day school, was 
the first superintendent, and had the small children for his 
class. They sat with their feet dangling from the front seat, 
and came forward to his chair one at a time and recited their 
verses, and received each his crumb of the bread of life. 

At first the school met only in the summer ; but after two 
or three years Deacon Fuller, the then superintendent, said if 
a Sunday school was a good thing in summer, it was an 
equally good thing in winter ; and under this conviction he 
started for the school with a bundle of fire-wood under each 
arm. Not long after this the school was held in the " meet- 
ing-house," and probably from that time it began to be 
regarded more as an institution of the church. 

For many years the teachers chose the superintendent ; but 
from 1852 there was a period when this officer was chosen by 
the church at the annual church meeting. On November 9, 
1859, the rule which required this election by the church was 
repealed, and two brethren were appointed to cooperate with 
the superintendent to promote the interest of the Sabbath 
school, and make an annual report to the church. Later still 
a rule was adopted, that the church should claim only right to 
confirm the election made by. the teachers. This is the prac- 
tice at the present time. 

In the early history of the school small books were bought 
every year and given to the scholars, and Testaments were 
given as prizes to those who had committed to memory the 
largest number of verses of Scripture. The time came when 
a library was begun, and collections were taken for missionary 
purposes, and a monthly concert was observed. At what 



124 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

precise date these points were reached is not easy to deter- 
mine. 

In October, 1838, the first steps were taken in the vestry of 
this church to form the " Newton Sunday School Union ; " an 
institution which has now more than forty years of good 
service placed to its account. 

The superintendents of the school have been as follows : 
First, Joseph Jackson, a man of genuine love of children, and 
whose goodness of heart speaks to us from his portrait here 
tonight. After him, Deacon Joel Fuller served for twenty 
years ; his name is still held in fragrant remembrance by 
many who knew him. Then followed Deacon Joseph Stone, 
Chester Judson, Samuel A. Danforth (five years), William 
Bosworth, Rev. Charles B. Rich, Guildford Newcomb, Albert 
Day, William Bosworth again, Benjamin F. Whittemore, 
Joseph A. Newell (ten years), and Deacon J. B. Whitmore, 
the present incumbent. 

Among those who have been especially successful in Bible- 
class instruction, honorable mention is rightly made of Rev. 
Joseph S. Clark, D.D., Rev. Ari Raymond, and Miss Hannah 
Richmond. One loved teacher, who for some years past has 
patiently served her Master in her sick-room, saw all her class 
of six or eight pupils unite with the church at one time. 
Others might be named who have been, or are now, equally 
devoted to this work. 

As to the number in attendance, we find authority for the 
following statement of the average attendance for the last four 
decades: from 1840 to 1850, eighty-five; 1850 to i860, one 
hundred and fifteen; i860 to 1870, two hundred and thirty; 
1870 to 1880, two hundred and eighty-five. The annual con- 
tribution to benevolent objects has, at one time at least, 
amounted to three hundred dollars. For a few years past it 
has been near two hundred dollars. The school at the pres- 
ent time is well supplied with efficient officers and faithful 
teachers. One valuable agency is the active interest taken in 
it by the pastor, who is often present in the school, and keeps 
up his teachers' Bible class on Sabbath afternoons. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 125 

Special mention ought here to be made of the primary 
department. For eighteen years past, with the exception of 
only one year, it has been under the care of Miss Maria S. 
Clarke. She has devoted herself to the work with genuine 
enthusiasm and great skill. When she took the class it num- 
bered twenty-four; it now numbers sixty. During her care of 
the class more than five hundred little children have received 
religious training and molding influence from her. 

Meager as are the resources from which this sketch has 
been drawn, there remains something more to be said. This 
Sabbath school was formed sixty-two years ago, for a specific 
purpose ; namely, to give the children and others who should 
be brought into it a better knowledge of God's word, in the 
hope of bringing some or all of them to a living faith in Jesus 
Christ as a personal Saviour. How far has this object been 
gained ? Has this investment of time, of head and heart 
service paid any dividend ? Has good been done ? Have 
souls been saved ? We answer, with confidence, Good has 
been done. Not only the teachers, but all who have been 
taught, have here given protracted and more or less earnest 
attention to those truths which concern their well-being for 
time and for eternity. It is safe to assert that, by the knowl- 
edge here gained, a large majority of these persons have been 
made better — better children, better parents, better husbands 
and wives, and better citizens and better patriots. As a 
result of this school, there has been more happiness in these 
homes, and purer and higher aims in life have been excited. 
There has been less profanity on these streets, less violation 
of the Sabbath, less infraction of the civil law. The amount 
of good done in these directions is, beyond all question, very 
great. 

But more than all this, a goodly number of those here 
taught have learned that " that life alone answers life's great 
end " which is self-consecrated to the glory of God. The 
school has been an auxiliary to the pastor, amplifying as well 
as supplementing his work. Of the 168 received into the 



126 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

church during the present pastorate, 129, or jj per cent., have 
been from the Sabbath school. Imperfect as our data are, 
we yet find reason to believe that very similar results were 
reached in the previous history of the school. 

With such a balance-sheet in its favor on this centennial 
day, how great reason this church has to prize its Sunday 
school, and how reasonably may it claim from every member 
earnest prayer and effort in its behalf ! 



From this point onward, through the remainder of the evening, the time was 
occupied by brief addresses from persons standing in various historical connec- 
tions and associations with the West Newton Church. The first address was by 
Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D., of Cambridge. 

In calling upon him to speak, the presiding officer remarked that we had with 
us a gentleman who came from a place that was named, in the early days, New- 
town. But when Harvard College was built there, the people thought they must 
have a larger name ; so they threw aside Newtown, and called the place Cam- 
bridge, after the name of the English university town. Many years afterward, 
when a part of Cambridge was to be set off into a town by itself, the people 
found this old name Newtown lying about loose, and they picked it up and gave 
it to the new township. Usage has shortened Newtown to Newton ; and so we 
came by our name. 

duress oC 3Dr» JSlciftensie* 

Mr. Chairman and Friends : It is a pleasure to be with 
you in this celebration. But it is with peculiar feelings that a 
Cambridge man rejoices in the prosperity of Newton ; for if 
Cambridge had been allowed to have her own way, there 
would have been no Newton. It was with sore misgiving 
that the little community on the other side of the river 
regarded the desire of the people on this side to be a town by 
themselves. It had been agreed by the Court that the bounds 
of Newtown should run eight miles from the meeting-house 
into the country. A good place it .was to measure from, and 
these hills and plains made a wonderfully fine domain. To 
part with so much land, and so many good men and women, 
with their business and their wealth, was a grievous thing to 
the Newtown folk, and stoutly was it resisted. They did not 
see how they could maintain the church, the school, and the 
bridge, if they were deserted in this way. The people here 



128 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

were shrewd. First they obtained the privilege of having 
their own church, because the old church was too far away. 
Then these " long-breathed petitioners " asked for more. " Find- 
ing that they had such good success that they could never 
cast their lines into the sea but something was catched, they 
resolved to bait their hook again." The plan of the Cam- 
bridge lands in the early days is shaped much like a stout 
leg cased in armor, and what is now Newton constituted 
the greater part of the foot. Is it strange that she objected 
to the surgery which would cut off her foot, and leave her 
" clipped and mangled ? " But the operation was performed. 
We are witnessing the result, smiling at the pathetic fears of 
the older town, enjoying the strength and honor of the newer. 
If I give you tonight the congratulation and hearty greeting 
of Cambridge, which I am delighted to .do, it is because your 
fathers, and you in your turn, have made so good use of your 
independence. It is long after the separation when these 
twelve men whose names are before us made themselves, 
and were made, into a church. We dismiss our regret, and 
assent and delight because of that which they have wrought, 
and others before and after them. There is a fine individual- 
ity in this group. No one of these men has a middle name. 
Each man is by himself. Every first name is from the Bible, 
and is illustrious. 

They made their church like themselves. It was a whole 
church, complete and free. They were living up to their 
principles. In 178 1 it had just been demonstrated that men 
ought to govern themselves, and would do it. If in the State, 
then in the Church. If they could elect a president and a 
governor, they could elect a minister and a deacon. If it was 
best that they should choose the former, it was best that they 
should choose the latter. If they were competent to manage 
their civil affairs, they were competent to manage their eccle- 
siastical affairs. They had never doubted on either point. 
Both points now received fresh assertion. The Republic was 
made entire. It was an auspicious year for a republican 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 129 

Church. A century in State and Church has intensified our 
devotion to the republican idea, and with good reason. We 
will continue to be loyal to the principle in Church and State. 
It is an instructive fact that this church has lived and grown 
into this renown. It has had no support of the government. 
It has not been held up by a formidable ecclesiastical system. 
It has had no help from imposing architecture or elaborate 
ceremonial. In a plain, honest, rational, scriptural, repub- 
lican way, it has done its work and increased its strength. 
We have good reason to be content with our sturdy faith and 
robust polity, in the light of this success. 

It has been grand work. It has trained men, by responsi- 
bility and opportunity ; they have learned to think, to vote, to 
govern, to give, to meet the duties of a broad citizenship in a 
republic. It has brought men and children into the kingdom 
of heaven, bringing them to God and eternal life. Many 
remain ready for fresh service, and many have been trans- 
lated, and they live in the church in the communion of saints. 

It has given continual blessings : making homes and schools, 
planting flowers and singing songs, cherishing all that is of 
good report, enriching the town where its place is, and all the 
country around. In these results, more than in its years, lies 
the reason for this thanksgiving. 

" It is not growing like a tree 
In bulk, doth make man better be ; 
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear ; 



In small proportions we just beauties see ; 
And in short measures life may perfect be." 

These twelve men were wise when, with divine guidance, 
they formed themselves into a church. Standing alone, they 
would have fallen and have been forgotten, one by one. It 
has been said that no man ever undertook to go to heaven 
alone without freezing by the way. These men stood together. 
The church would last. They put themselves into the church. 
Then each man would be helped by all the men. They might 



130 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

vanish from sight ; but their names, their deeds, their desires, 
would remain. Are they not with you still? It was wise 
forethought, if it was no more. We may learn the lesson. 
Is it not this : that we double the brightness of our light by 
joining it with other lights; that we enlarge our service by 
working with others of a like mind ; that we increase our gifts 
by sending them into the world through the common treas- 
ury; that we are now and shall be larger by being and 
living in a church ? We shall do well to heed the practical 
instruction, and to bring our separate lives together, where 
the one shall stand with the many, where the weak and poor 
may be in alliance with the strong and rich, and those mem- 
bers which are more feeble shall be members in particular, 
and where life and hope shall last. As we seek Him whom 
our soul loves, and long for his service and his rest, the 
strain comes to us from the Canticles : " Go thy way forth by 
the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shep- 
herds' tents." 

In calling upon Rev. Joseph B. Clark, the President remarked that we 
should next hear from one who has been called the only son of this church. This 
does not mean, however, that he is the only one that this church has ever given 
to the Christian ministry. The records which have already been spread befoie 
you show that, in years gone by, this church was noted for the men whom, 
directly and indirectly, it gave to the ministry. It happens, however, that the 
brother who will now address us is the only living minister raised up by this 
church. For his own sake, and for his father's sake, who was so long an hon- 
ored member here, we shall be glad to hear him. 

a Duress of Eetu Jlosepi? 93 ♦ £lar&* 

Mr. President : I was dismayed to be told that I must 
speak, in some sense, for the living ministry which this church 
has reared up and sent forth. My dismay became affright on 
being informed that I was the sole and only specimen of that 
class. I cannot claim to be ignorant of my subject; perhaps 
I know too much of it to speak with freedom. In so far, 
however, as I am a ministerial child of this church, I may 
claim to be legitimately so ; for it was here, and through this 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 131 

church, that I made choice of my profession. How little we 
think of our unconscious influence! My friend, Rev. Dr. 
Means, will be surprised to be told that he had more to do 
than any other man in turning my feet into the ministry. He 
never meant to do it, except as a true minister means to do all 
the good he can ; but he did it. Coming home, on a college 
vacation, full of prejudice against the ministry, and with mind 
fully made up, I thought, for another calling, I found Rev. Mr. 
Means preaching, for a few months only, in this pulpit, and, 
listening to him, I began to feel, for the first time, what a 
glorious thing it was to preach the gospel. I discovered, and 
to my great surprise, that a man might be scholarly, devout, 
genial, and even jolly, and still be a true minister of Christ. 
It was my first contact with the younger ministry of that 
time, and the impression was deep and lasting. I will not say, 
I dare not trust myself to say, how that thought was strength- 
ened by the influence of such a man as George B. Little, 
whom I reverenced as I have reverenced few men. 

My acquaintance with this church began in its youth, when 
it was but sixty-five years old, and I was a mature young man 
of nine. I well remember the old meeting-house, and my first 
Sabbath there. In the distribution of the family, my lot fell to 
sit in a side pew near the pulpit, where I could see the church 
mouse running in and out under the feet of the minister as he 
preached. I do not recall distinctly the heads of the sermon, 
but I do remember with gratitude all the points of that 
mouse. 

Not many of you would recognize this village as it then 
appeared. There were four houses on Chestnut Street : Mrs. 
Lamb's, at the top of the hill ; Horace Mann's and Dr. Will- 
iam Alcott's and my father's, then just built, near the depot. 
The whole hill, from the edge of Newtonville to Lower Falls, 
was a mixed pasture and woodland, full of stones and full of 
water. Today you will not see a hillside in Massachusetts so 
adorned with beautiful homes. Just where your elegant rail- 
road station now stands ran a brook, fringed with a double 



132 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

line of willow bushes. The depot was on the north side of 
the track, quite near Chestnut Street, and was used in part, I 
believe, as a shoemaker's shop. This whole region was quite 
commonly known as " Squash End " — a name that fell to it 
years ago, from some incident in the setting off of the Second 
Parish. 

I remember to have heard " the Old Gentleman Ward," as 
he was known, silence a couple of gentlemen from another 
part of the town, who were bantering him for residing in 
" Squash End." When his turn came, he replied : " Gentle- 
men, you call us ' Squash End.' Let it be so ! You see these 
new streets opening, those fine houses building ; you know 
real estate is advancing rapidly. I rather think, gentlemen, 
that time will prove that the seeds of that squash were mostly 
in the end of it /" Nothing remained to be said. 

We had some things, even in Squash End, to be proud of. 
There was the State Normal School, standing opposite this 
church, and looking much, externally, as it does today. We 
had Father Pierce, whose very shadow we reverenced. We 
had the " Model School," so called, and which became so, in 
fact, after the arrival of the model school-master, Nathaniel T. 
Allen. 

I believe I saw every timber in this house laid ; not that I 
was one of the building committee, but only one of the boys 
who superintended the erection of this building. The only 
man approaching us in fidelity was Nathaniel Fuller, who 
watched the work with tireless devotion. After the house 
was done, there was one duty that devolved almost wholly 
upon the youth of this village. It was the ringing of this 
church bell on the morning of the " glorious Fourth." We 
had little help from the citizens or the sexton. Indeed, they 
appeared to object. They would sometimes lock and double 
lock those doors on the night of the third, which compelled 
us to force a way through the windows. Sometimes the rope 
was removed, which made it inconvenient ; but a church bell 
can be rung without a rope, and I am happy to say this bell 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 133 

always rang. One generation scarcely appreciates what it 
owes to another. The practice thus inaugurated under great 
difficulties is today the patriotic duty of the whole community. 

There came one Sabbath day — the first Sabbath and day 
of the year — when I came forward from my father's pew 
alone, and, standing right there, entered into fellowship with 
this church. I wonder, now, I had courage to do it. The 
welcome was not very warm. I assented to the strange, 
unintelligible creed. The church stood up and sat down. 
Two warm hand-grasps I remember, and that is all. We 
have improved in our methods of Christian fellowship since 
1854. 

But once within this church, I found men whom I loved, 
and who have had a marked influence on my life. There was 
" Old Deacon Stone," always present, always ready — a good 
man, if there ever was one. There was Deacon Samuel War- 
ren, the genius of the parish, a man of most prodigious mem- 
ory, who, after ten years, could tell the minister not only what 
he said in his sermon, but what he ought to have said to make 
the argument complete ; a man who, as he once told me, 
" studied Hebrew for his recreation," which made me wonder, 
when at Andover, what his hard work could have been. You 
say that such a man must have been a rather uncomfortable 
hearer ; but you are mistaken. With all his keenness and 
skill, he was one of the simplest, sweetest-souled men in the 
world, a man to whom the boys loved to come. There, too, 
was the saintly Deacon Woodford, who, with Mr. Chesboro 
(both now of Chicago) and Dr. William Alcott, were our 
skilled Bible teachers. " Dr. Brown " is a name that will 
never be forgotten out of those days — the true type of a 
Christian gentleman, who was as courtly and polite to a child 
as to a man. It was almost a luxury to be sick, to have Dr. 
Brown for your attendant. 

I might speak of living superintendents, and of their long 
and faithful service ; but two among the dead come freshly to 
mind. Mr. Danforth was not a brilliant man, nor a profound 



134 Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 

Bible scholar ; but he was intensely devoted to saving souls. 
He had the spirit and the methods of Harlan Page. It is not 
strange that during his service more youth were received into 
the church than in any similar period. Rev. Mr. Rich, a 
retired minister, was superintendent but one year ; but it was 
a memorable year, chiefly by reason of his great power in 
telling the Bible stories in graphic language of his own. 
Strong men would be melted to tears and repentance by his 
narrative of the Crucifixion. 

Brethren and friends, I have time only for this closing word. 
I solemnly confess that these men of whom I speak had a 
positive and helpful influence on my life ; not, however, 
because they aimed distinctly to do so. They were simply 
trying to do their various duties as members of this church. 
It would be absurd to suppose that I was the only boy thus 
affected ; and it would be equally absurd to suppose that there 
are not boys and girls today in this community, and in all 
communities, receiving these unconscious influences. To me 
this is the solemn and cheering lesson of this anniversary, 
that the humble, patient, sincere church life, that round of 
duties which often seems so dry and fruitless, will in the end 
see their reward. 

The next speaker was Rev. Daniel L. Furber, who represented the ancient 
mother church of Newton, already one hundred and seventeen years old when 
this daughter was born. 

Dr* JFurbcr'0 gBoress* 

The ancient mother church in Newton takes a deep inter- 
est in the hundredth anniversary of her first-born. She 
parted with twenty-five of her members to form this church. 
From first to last, she has parted with ninety-six of her mem- 
bers to form other churches. Among them have been some 
of the best she has had. The men and women who started 
this church had faith and courage, or they never would have 
done it when they were so few and so weak. Of course the 
best kind of material is needed to start a new enterprise; and 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 135 

though the old church has reluctantly parted with her mem- 
bers, from time to time, to make such beginnings, she rejoices 
in the prosperity of her daughters. Those whom she has 
sent out in this way, at one time and another, have been like 
handfuls of corn upon the top of the mountains : the fruit 
thereof now shakes like Lebanon. We made good invest- 
ments. If we were like the man who goes forth, weeping, 
bearing precious seed, we also, like him, rejoice when we see 
the sheaves coming in. 

Anniversaries like this are important, because they furnish 
occasion to take account of the work that a church accom- 
plishes. We stop and take breath. We make an eddy in the 
stream of life, that we may look back and see what we have 
been doing. While toiling at our work, we are apt, in hours 
of weariness, to complain that we see but little fruit of our 
labor ; but when we look back over a wide interval of time, 
we are surprised to see how much has been accomplished ; 
and we read with new eyes the scripture which says : " Let 
us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall 
reap, if we faint not." 

One of the things which this church has done is to give its 
testimony in favor of a permanent pastorate. Its first was 
fifty years; its second, twenty-seven or twenty-eight ; its third 
and fourth ended only with life ; and I trust the same will be 
true of the present one. 

This church is giving a noble testimony in favor of congre- 
gational singing. It maintains it in a way that is positively 
successful and satisfactory ; and this could be said of but very 
few churches in the Commonwealth. This success, I pre- 
sume, is owing very largely to the unremitted efforts of the 
present pastor. His predecessor also, Mr. Little, was enthu- 
siastic in his love of singing, and of singing by all the people. 

By your present pastor, in particular, you have given your 
testimony in favor of fellowship among the churches. He 
is preeminently a social man. He loves the brethren. He is 
always present at church conferences, and wherever he can 



136 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

meet the Lord's people, saying by his genial presence, and 
singing, too, if there is a chance, in his hearty way, " Here 
my best friends and kindred dwell." We want a good deal 
more of this feeling among our churches, and we ought to be 
very thankful to him for doing so much to promote it. This 
is a very proper thing for me, as the pastor of the church 
which is the mother of you all, to say. I therefore adopt the 
language of the apostle John, and say, " Little children, let 
us love one another." The old church is the mother of three 
of the churches in this city — the West Church, the Eliot 
Church, and the Highlands Church ; and it is the grand- 
mother of two — the Auburndale Church and the North Vil- 
lage Church. It can hardly be called the mother of the 
Newtonville Church, as that was formed by a union of mem- 
bers of all the three older churches — the First, the Second, 
and the Eliot Church. The Congregational churches of this 
city are very closely related to each other. They should 
heartily own the kinship, and take a lively interest in each 
other's welfare. I am glad of the opportunity which this 
occasion furnishes me of calling this subject to mind. The 
trouble with us is that our villages are too far apart. Those 
on one of the lines of railroad see but little of those on the 
other line, and are scarcely acquainted with them. We tried, 
a few years ago, to have fellowship meetings ; but they soon 
died out. I hope that when we get the new railroad, connect- 
ing all the villages in the city, we shall do better. 

An important part of the history of a nation is the charac- 
ter and services of its eminent men ; so when we look over 
the history of a church, we ask, What names has it had upon 
its roll of men that have been such a blessing to it that the 
church will never forget them ? what eminently devoted min- 
isters has it had ? what laymen faithful and true, on whom the 
minister could always rely ? This church has been blessed 
with an excellent ministry from the first until now, and it has 
had a good number, I doubt not, of men and women who 
have been an honor to the Christian profession. At an anni- 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 137 

versary held a few years ago at the Newton Centre Church, 
Dr. Gilbert spoke of three deacons — one of the First Church, 
one of the Second Church, and one of Eliot Church — who, 
thirty or forty years ago, could have been described as the 
three mighty men : Deacon Woodward, Deacon Joel Fuller, 
and Deacon William Jackson. They were men of prayer ; 
and one thing about them, he said, was, that they were sure 
to be at the prayer-meeting. He imagined a meeting held in 
the little, old, low-roofed vestry which was formerly used at 
the Centre, at which they were all three present, and all took 
part. "The Spirit of God," said he, "is present in power. 
First Woodward prays, and we feel that the Lord is fulfilling 
his promise, and is really present in the midst while the good 
man, in his low, soft, humble, child-like voice, is telling him all 
his feelings and all his desires. Now Fuller prays, and the 
roof of our building is lifted, a door is opened in heaven, the 
throne of God appears, the angels are ascending and descend- 
ing, and we bow in reverence and awe before the Sovereign 
of the universe. Anon Jackson prays : walls and roof vanish ; 
we are rapt to the third heaven, and are pouring out our 
hearts in love and faith and hope and joy before the great, 
loving Father above." This is the description which Dr. Gil- 
bert gave, and here is a picture of three men who will never 
be forgotten by the churches to which they belonged. Let it 
be our study to increase the number of such men — men 
whom we count the jewels of our churches, and whose names 
we love to repeat on occasions like the present. And let us 
hold in abiding honor the church, that institution of our Lord 
which produces such men, and then places them in its candle- 
stick, where they may give light to all around them. 

We owe the services and tributes of this day to this church 
as a recognition of the blessing which it has been to this 
community. The planting of an evangelical church in a place 
where there is none is like digging a well of water in a thirsty 
land ; every traveler that comes along blesses you for it. 
One hundred years ago this well was digged. It has been a 



138 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

perpetual benediction to this village ; and who knows but 
that it may live to bless as many generations of men as 
Jacob's well at Shechem did, and that thousands of souls in 
the far-distant future may come hither to draw, and to slake 
their thirst from this fountain of salvation ? 

Rev. Wolcott Calkins, D.D., pastor of the Eliot Church, Newton, was 
the next speaker. The President, in introducing him, remarked that, from the 
relations of the Eliot Church to the mother church at Newton Centre and to the 
church at West Newton, it might be difficult to decide whether she should be 
called a daughter of our West Newton Church, or a kind of half-sister. 

JElr* €SLlkinss 3Utire00, 

No report has been preserved of Mr. Calkins's remarks. 
They were wholly impromptu, and cannot be exactly repro- 
duced in this record. The following letter, adopted by unan- 
imous and very hearty vote of the church, had been previously 

sent : 

" Newton, Nov. 4, 1881. 

'■''The Eliot Church to the Second Church in Newton, Mass., Rev. H.J. Patrick, 
pastor, sendeth greeting : 
" Dear Brethren : We have received your kind and cordial invitation to 
unite with you in celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the organization 
of your church. 

" We accept with pleasure, and extend to you our congratulations and best 
wishes for your future usefulness and prosperity. 

"Grace, mercy, and peace, in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

" Wolcott Calkins, Minister, 
" W. O. Trowbridge, Clerk? 

Mr. Calkins said that a stranger to the memorable history 
of this church ought not to intrude upon the delightful rem- 
iniscences of the hour. He regretted that Eliot Church had 
not sent a representative who could recall the sympathy and 
cordial support extended to them, in their earlier struggles, 
by this older sister. But he had felt, from the beginning of 
his brief ministry, the blessed influence of these older sisters 
upon Eliot Church. He remembered well how he used to 
threaten the fellows, when he was a small boy, that he " would 
tell his big sisters," if they tormented him ; and now, if the 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 139 

skeptics, or anybody else, should trouble him and little sister 
Eliot, he would be sure to resort to the same powerful refuge. 

He offered, personally and in behalf of his whole congre- 
gation, the most cordial congratulations. One hundred years 
of faithful testimony for Christ, without one instance, in pul- 
pit or pew, of denying his divinity or the authority of his 
word, was a ground for the profoundest thanksgiving ; and 
this record was the more honorable, because it was made in 
the midst of a " crooked and perverse generation." 

In conclusion, he reminded his brethren that the abiding 
fruits of these blessed years were such only as were purely 
spiritual. The work upon the successive meeting-houses, and 
the faithful service in temporal things, had been very valu- 
able, and, if rendered in the spirit of consecration, was truly 
acceptable to God ; but such work can never endure for a 
hundred years. The work for souls, leading the impenitent 
to Christ, and nourishing growths of grace in believing 
hearts, — this is the only Christian work which shall abide 
forever. 

The two churches which follow, namely, the Congregational Church at 
Auburndale and the Central Congregational Church at Newtonville, both stand 
in filial relations to the West Newton Church. Each of them received more 
members from this than from any other one church. These churches were 
represented by their pastors, Rev. Calvin Cutler and Rev. E. Frank Howe, 
both of whom entertained the audience by their historical review and their 
spicy remarks. 

Eetu ftflr* <&mlei8 3utire00» 

Mr. President : It is a good thing for a grown-up daughter 
to come home, especially at such a time, to such a home as 
this ; to see the mother so well, and looking so handsome ; 
to see such a pleasant company; to have the solid enjoyment 
of such an entertainment, without the work of getting it up. 
I used to notice, when I was a child, that hSthere was any- 
thing particularly nice in the house, it was sure to be brought 
out when there was company, and it was best for me to be 
round. 



140 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

This matter of ecclesiastical relationship is a little mixed, 
and none the worse for that. 

The Auburndale Church had thirty-three members to begin 
with, of whom eight had been members of this church. One 
of these is still with us. He had seen half a century before 
he left you, and looks likely to see the other half before he 
is taken from us. 

Brookline and Medway gave us four apiece, one of whom 
was named for your first pastor — a son of Rev. Sewell 
Harding, first pastor of the church in Waltham. His sister 
— I have seen her here today — has told me of the frequent 
and very pleasant visits back and forth from her father s 
house and the home of Mr. Greenough. 

The rest of the original members of the church at Auburn- 
dale came from various sources. 

It all goes to multiply the motherhood. It isn't given to a 
man to be blessed with more than one mother; but a church 
may have a dozen, and, if only they be as good in quality as 
this one, the more the better. 

There is a story about an inmate of a lunatic asylum who 
went up to a visitor, one day, and announced himself as 
Julius Caesar. Meeting him again, soon after, he put on airs, 
and claimed to be no less a personage than Napoleon Bona- 
parte. " Why, how is this ? " politely inquired the visitor ; 
" there must be some mistake." " Not at all, sir," he replied. 
"Didn't you say, just now, that you were Julius Caesar?" 
" Certainly, I did ; but that was by another wife ! " Now, 
that is somewhat the case in the present instance. We have 
a little parentage out in one place and another ; but nowhere 
else so much as here. And so we are glad to come today 
and greet our venerable mother on this memorable anniver- 
sary ; to go round the house ; to look into the best room, so 
handsomely decorated and adorned ; to see how things go in 
the pantry — just as they used to go, down and fast! In 
ecclesiastical house-keeping not so much account is made of 
the spare room. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 141 

One wouldn't think you could be so old, you look so fresh. 
But the years are gone. It makes one feel like the Sunday- 
school boy whose teacher had told him that the event of the 
lesson took place four thousand years ago. It staggered him. 
He ventured to inquire, " How long ago did you say it was ? " 
"Four thousand years, my child." "Goodness, ma'am," he 
replied, " how time does fly ! " 

It has been pleasant to live so nigh the homestead, within 
sight of the spire, within sound of the bell, so that as we go 
up to worship we can hear the tones that call you to the house 
of prayer. 

It used to be a matter of deep regret to me that it was 
my misfortune not to be present with my mother when she 
was a little girl ; it was so delightful to hear her tell about it. 
That sort of satisfaction we have had in listening to the his- 
torical discourse of your pastor. Those reminiscences were 
just delicious. The story of those early days, with all their 
privations, has a charm that grows as the years go by. In 
them lived noble men and women. But we would not go 
back. With all that was good and great about them, we 
believe that the present days are better, with a piety that is 
fuller, healthier, more vigorous and useful. 

Still, we like to look back. I believe in centennials ; wish 
they came oftener, that we might go back from present 
troubles to the untroubled well of early days, and renew and 
hand down the child-like faith in which we drank in our first 
impressions concerning our Father in heaven and the life to 
come. 

May the spring at this homestead long be kept open and 
pure ; and may the ancient benediction be fulfilled to this 
mother church : " The Lord bless thee out of Zion ; cause 
thee to see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life, 
yea, and see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel." 



142 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 



If any of you desire to know how you can get the most 
possible enjoyment out of an occasion of this sort, let me 
give you a bit of advice : secure an appointment to fill the 
last place on a list of ten or a dozen speakers, each one of 
whom can make a better speech than you can. It is rare 
sport, sitting through eight or nine hours of speeches and 
addresses, waiting for one's turn to come. There is my 
friend from Cambridge, who, although he came in but twenty 
minutes before he was to speak, was as nervous and fidgety 
as a fish out of water. I could but think, as I watched his 
writhings, what he would do if he were obliged to take my 
place, and wait till the last. The English are accustomed to 
terminate every dinner, no matter how elaborate, with com- 
mon crackers and cheese. I am in the place of the crackers 
and cheese tonight, though which I am it is not so easy to say 
— probably the cheese, as I am pressed into this small space 
at the end. But it is only a nibble that they take. 

I shall satisfy myself with attempting to straighten out a 
bit of ecclesiastical genealogy which seems to be in some 
confusion. The Central Church was invited to come here as 
a " sister church." Now, while sisters have the same parental 
blood in their veins, they do not have the blood of each other. 
But on looking over the records of the Central Church, I 
find that, of the members who united with it during the first 
year of its existence, two came from the Eliot Church and 
four from the First Church, but that this Second Church 
gave eleven members. I also found that when these Congre- 
gationalists in Newtonville desired to have a church of their 
own, they first consulted the pastor of this Second Church, 
our friend, Mr. Patrick. It was he, also, who appointed and 
regularly attended the weekly prayer-meeting in that neigh- 
borhood, out of which the church came into existence. I 
also find that, when the church was organized, the one to 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 143 

welcome it into life was also the pastor of this church. Nor 
is this all. When the young church wanted a pastor of its 
own, where did it go ? It went to a son of this church, and 
had for its first pastor the Rev. Joseph B. Clark ; and a better 
it could not have found. Considering, then, the number of 
members given to form the Central Church, who it was that 
advised its existence, who cared for it in its embryo state, 
who welcomed it to existence, and who gave it its first pastor, 
is it not evident that the Second Church is the mother of the 
Central Church? The First Church she gladly recognizes, 
not as mother, but as grandmother, and trusts she will be as 
partial and lenient toward her as grandparents generally are 
toward their grandchildren. The Eliot Church is her aunt; 
and a rich aunt is an excellent thing to have in the family. 
But this Second Church we hail as our mother, and we come 
today to thank her for all her maternal care, and to invoke 
the richest blessings upon her head. May her second century 
be even richer than the first in the good things which she 
shall gather for herself, and in usefulness to the community, 
and in the glory of God. 



LXBIFJPB^S. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. September 27, 1881. 

Rev. H. J. Patrick: Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 13th 
inst. came duly to hand, and has been under consideration. 
I have no voice for public speaking, and old age has brought 
on a general debility, which makes it prudent to abide at 
home; otherwise I would be glad to be present on the occa- 
sion. 

If I am able to prepare anything relevant to the centennial, 
I will let you know in time. I once said to Dr. Lyman 
Beecher, "Justice has not been done to the memory of Father 
Greenough." " I know it," said he. " I long for an oppor- 
tunity to say that about Father Greenough for which I am 
afraid I shall never have an opportunity." Possibly I might 
furnish a fact or two in his history which is not known to the 
present generation. Of my own history enough has doubt- 
less been said in the late History of Newton. If I should 
undertake to speak of the good people whom I found there, 
and with whom I spent so many happy years, it would be a 
long story. I drew for Mr. Smith a plan of the old meeting- 
house, and gave the names of the pewholders, with a slight 
sketch of each, which he wanted for his History ; but it failed 
to appear. 

Very truly yours, 

Lyman Gilbert. 



146 Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 

Hartford, Conn., October 29, 1881. 

Dear Brother Patrick: I thank you for your kind note, 
and the committee for their polite invitation. I am now 
within a few weeks of eighty ; 

" And if to eighty we arrive, 

We rather sigh and groan than live." 

The infirmities of age accumulate upon me. I cannot write, 
nor do I feel competent even to dictate. 

Dear old Father Greenough ! He was as an angel of light 
to me during a boyhood and youth of rather unusual despond- 
ency and sorrow. I am happy in the thought of soon greeting 
him on the other side of the river. Truly yours, 

C. E. Stowe. 

Andover, November 7, 1881. 

My Dear Mr. Patrick: I was fully intending, an hour 
ago, to attend the centennial celebration at West Newton 
tomorrow. I have just received intelligence, however, which 
renders it impossible for me to hear your centennial address, 
and renders it necessary for me to remain at home tomorrow. 
I am very much disappointed. I was particularly desirous of 
listening to your address; for I have been acquainted with all 
the pastors of the West Newton church, and have been so 
well acquainted with the history of the church that I have 
much desired a fuller acquaintance with it. I firmly believe 
that the pastor of a church like yours holds a position very 
important for the country at large, and that our political 
prosperity depends upon our ecclesiastical. 

With very great respect, I remain, dear sir, your friend and 
servant, Edwards A. Park. 

New York, October 6, 1881. 

Rev. H. J. Patrick : My Dear Sir, — I thank you for your 
kind invitation to take a part in the one hundredth anniver- 
sary of the church in West Newton. It would be impossible 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 147 

for me to do so, even if there were sufficient reason for my so 
doing ; but my knowledge and acquaintance is too slight for 
me to make any contribution to your history. I bear the 
name of one of the old pastors, because my maternal grand- 
father, Obadiah Thayer, was an intimate friend of his, though 
not a parishioner. He and his daughter Eliza, my mother, 
were members of Dr. Homer's congregation. My father 
removed his family from eastern Massachusetts to northern 
New York, in 183 1, when I was a boy of eleven years. My 
knowledge of Newton and its ministers was very slight at 
that time, and I have never been able to make it any greater. 
At the same time, I feel that upon myself very important 
influences issued from Newton. Both my grandfather and 
mother were deeply religious persons, of a type of piety 
serious and earnest to intensity. I have always supposed that 
this was greatly due, so far as human causes are concerned, 
to the teaching and spirit of the Newton ministers. My 
early religious influence, under God, was determined for me 
by a very godly mother and grandfather. They both died 
before my 13th year; but if I have any true religious char- 
acter, or have done any good in the world, I owe it, through 
divine grace, to their instruction, example and prayers. That 
the blessing of Christ the Lord may ever rest upon the church 
in West Newton is my hearty prayer. 

Yours sincerely, 

W. G. T. Shedd. 

Oakland, Cal., October 31, 1881. 
Dear Brother Patrick : Your card of invitation for 
November 8 came to hand this morning. Although never a 
member of the West Newton Church, I feel — on the ground 
of having so often partaken of its generous hospitality, and of 
having been, at one time, a sort of winter boarder with it — 
that it would not be impertinent for me to join company, for a 
bit, with its home-coming children. The fact is, moreover, 
that the chances of our reaching any similar occasion upon 



148 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

this Pacific coast are so remote, we feel like jumping at any 
shadow of an invitation from our older Atlantic brethren. 
But for the inconvenient width of our continent, I would 
venture a corporeal attendance upon the 8th ; as it is, I must 
be content to come in spirit. 

Blessed is that church of Christ which has the honorable 
record of a hundred years behind it ; blessed the memory of 
those whose labors planted, whose tears watered, and whose 
prayers nourished it ! 

It is a great stimulus to us here, in our arduous and often- 
times disheartening work of laying foundations, to look back 
eastward, and see the possibilities which lie in a hundred 
years. This fallow-ground work is of the hardest. To go in 
with ax, grubbing-hook, and faggot ; to stand day after day 
amid fire and smoke, with the feeling that, after all, we shall 
scarcely more than succeed in clearing the ground, not in real- 
izing, in our day, any substantial harvests, is sometimes a 
little trying to flesh and blood. It does us good then to look 
over into our neighbor's field, where the rich corn and wheat 
are growing, where gardens smile and orchards bloom, and to 
feel that that, too, was, not long ago, fallow soil. 

You will feel, no doubt, in West Newton, on Tuesday week, 
that it was a good investment of time and money, strength 
and life, on the part of the pioneers of your church, to have 
put it all into the foundation-laying which they did. The 
men have gone; their work abides. Being dead, they yet 
speak ; ay, they still live, and live in blessing to the scores 
who dwell so happily and worthily along your hillsides. 

I will not seek to add to the felicity of your joyous occa- 
sion. It doubtless wants not any such outside aid. I would 
only gain courage for myself and fellow-workers here at the 
outposts, from looking in upon you for this single moment. 
And, if it would not be out of place, I would tarry longer 
only to beg that, standing upon the foundations laid by others 
for you, sitting under the pleasant shade and plucking the 
ripening fruit which comes to you from others' planting, you 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 149 

will, now and then, remember us, who are doing, for time to 
come, the work the past has done for you. Are you not, in 
some sort, our debtors, brethren ? 

Give us your prayers ; give us your fellowship in the spirit. 
The Golden Gate is far off from Plymouth Rock — geographi- 
cally far, socially and spiritually far. Our hope is that the 
full hundred years of work here will bring it nearer. We are 
nearing you, year by year, in time. The six months' distance 
of '49 has shrunk to seven days' in '8i, and is to shrink 
yet more. Pour out upon us your culture, your care, and 
prayer, that our distance behind you, as well as our distance 
from you, may be lessened. We feel that the California of 
1949 is to be dependent greatly upon us, the followers and 
representatives of the Pilgrims, who are putting in founda- 
tions now. Is it not also in some measure dependent upon 
you, the sons and heirs of the Pilgrims of the Bay State ? 

The Golden Gate needs Plymouth Rock ; but does not 
Plymouth Rock also need the Golden Gate ? What shall 
it avail, a thousand years hence, that at Plymouth Rock 
landed all good and beneficent things into America, if, mean- 
while, all evil and destructive things continue to pour in 
unchecked and unleavened through the Golden Gate ? 

Ultimate America is to come in by way of the West, not 
by way of the East alone. 

Then help us, for both our sake and your own. 

Very sincerely yours, 
J. K. McLean. 

Lexington, November 4, 1881. 

Dear Brother Patrick : It would give me much pleasure 
to accept the kind invitation of your committee for the one 
hundredth anniversary of your church. 

I was hardly aware that your annals ran back so far as 
1781. 

I remember, as a boy, boarding one or two summers in 
West Newton, at my great-uncle's, Mr. Pratt's, near the sta- 
tion. I believe Mr. Gilbert was then the pastor. 



150 Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 

My mother, when a girl, attended the school of Master 
Davis, who, I believe, still lives, at a ripe old age. 

I rejoice with you in your goodly pastorate, and I trust you 
may long be spared to that church. 

Yours sincerely, 

Edward G. Porter. 

Amherst, November 6, 1881. 

Rev. H. T. Patrick : My Dear Sir, — Many thanks for the 
invitation to attend the one hundredth anniversary of the 
Congregational Church in West Newton, so kindly sent me. 
I am very sorry that I shall not be able to be present on that 
interesting occasion. 

The connection of my revered uncle, Rev. William Green- 
ough, with that church as its pastor for so many years, invests 
it with peculiar interest to me, enchanted by the memories of 
my youthful days, when for many months I was a member of 
my uncle's family, and worshiped in the old church. 

How changed the town is from 1824! How many genera- 
tions have gone ! Among the gentlemen of the parish com- 
mittee I find but few names that were common then. Are we 
not warranted by Scripture to believe that the faithful still 
live, for " God is the God of the living ; " and will you not be 
surrounded, on your great anniversary, " by a great cloud of 
witnesses " of those departed in the faith ? I shall be inter- 
ested to hear all about the day, and my heart will be with you 
while you keep the festival. 

With sentiments of sincere regard, 

I remain, your truly, 

Fanny H. Boltwood. 

P. S. — I had a call today from William Greenough Thayer, 
a great-grandson of Uncle Greenough's, who has entered 
Amherst College this year. F. H. B. 



Stppentw to ^i^torical 2Digcour£e. 



A. MR. GREENOUGH'S ORDINATION. 

[From the Independent Chronicle, Boston, November ij, J787.] 

Newton West Parish, November 8, 1781. 

This day was ordained Rev. Mr. William Greenough to the pastoral office in 
this place. 

Rev. Mr. Eliot, of Boston, began with prayer. Rev. Mr. Lathrop preached a 
sermon suitable to the occasion. Rev. Mr. Cushing, of Waltham, prayed and 
gave the charge. Rev. Mr. Clark, of Boston, made the concluding prayer, and 
Rev. Mr. Jackson, of Brookline, gave the right hand of fellowship. 

A remarkable decency and good order were preserved thro the whole 
solemnity. 

B. CHANGE IN CURRENCY. 
[From the Parish Records^ 

At a meeting of the inhabitants of the West Precinct in Newton, on Monday, 
the 7th day of May, 1781, 

Voted, That the sum of four thousand pounds be assessed on the polls and 
estates in this precinct, to be paid into the precinct treasury on or before the 1st 
day of July next. 

At a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the West Precinct 
in Newton on Tuesday, the 26th of June, 1781, at the meeting-house in said 
precinct, 

Voted, That the assessors do assess one hundred pounds of the new emission, 
in room of four thousand pounds granted the 7th day of May last. 

C. MR. GREENOUGH'S CALL. 

[From the Parish Records.] 

At a meeting of the West Precinct on the 1st of March, 1781, at the public 
meeting-house, 

Voted, To proceed to the choice of a public teacher of religion to settle in 
this precinct ; and the vote being taken by poll, the following persons returned 



152 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

their votes for Mr. William Greenough as their pastor, or teacher of religion, 
viz., Captain Samuel Jenks, Joseph Jackson, Nathan Park, Benjamin Prentice, 
Jonathan Williams, Joseph Adams, Ensign Josiah Fuller, Peter Dural, William 
Hoogs, Lieutenant Josiah Fuller, Joshua Jackson, Lieutenant Samuel Craft, 
Elisha Seaverns, Samuel Jackson, Robert Bull, Jonas Ward, Enoch Ward, 
Michael Welch, Samuel Woodward, Elijah Pratt, Francis Wright, Nathaniel 
Greenough, Moses Hyde, Henry Proole, Abijah Abbot, Moses Craft, Josiah 
Jackson, Peter Dural, Jr., Colonel Nathan Fuller, Alexander Shepard, Jr., and 
Thomas Jackson; the aforesaid persons being all that were present at the meet- 
ing, except William Mcintosh, who declined giving his vote, but declared he had 
no objection against Mr. William Greenough. 

At an adjourned meeting on the 19th of March, 1781, 

Voted, That such persons now present who were absent at the choice of a 
public teacher of religion on the first day of this meeting now bring in their 
votes for a public teacher as aforesaid ; in consequence of which vote Henry 
Segur, John Murdock, Joshua Jackson, Jr., Elijah Houghton, Joshua Green- 
wood, Joseph Adams, Jr., Edward Sanders, and Nathan Moore gave their votes 
for Mr. William Greenough as their public teacher. 

D. ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. . 

{From the Church Records^ 

In the year 1781 a number of persons, belonging to the parish, who were 
members of the church in the other part of the town, were dismissed by their 
desire, and made choice of Mr. William Greenough for their pastor. The con- 
gregation joined with 'em herein, Mr. Greenough being properly acquainted 
with the choice, and (after mature deliberation) accepted the call. 

The male persons dismissed from the church of Christ in the other part of 
the town were Messrs. Josiah Fuller, Joseph Ward, Jonathan Fuller, Joseph 
Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Joshua Jackson, Samuel Woodward, and Jonathan 
Williams. Mr. Joseph Adams received also, by his desire, a dismission from the 
church in Brook! ine, of which he was a member. These persons, together with 
Messrs. Samuel Craft, Josiah Fuller, Jr., and Joseph Adams, Jr., united 
together, and were gathered into a particular church of Christ October 21, 1781, 
by the Rev. Joseph Jackson, pastor of the church in Brookline. 

E. ORIGINAL MEMBERS. 

The names appended to the organizing covenant of the church on its records 
were as follows : William Greenough, pastor, Jonathan Fuller, Joseph Ward, 
Josiah Fuller, Joseph Adams, Joseph Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Samuel Wood- 
ward, Samuel Craft, Josiah Fuller, Jr., Alexander Shepard, Jr., Joseph 
Adams, Jr. 

. On the 1 6th of November the following persons were received, and should be 
reckoned with the original church: Elisabeth Shepard, Abigail Fuller, Mary 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 153 

Fuller, Deborah Woodward, Lydia Upham, Lois Jackson, Elisabeth Fuller, 
Tabitha Miller, Abigail Jackson, Experience Ward, Lydia Knapp, Mercy 
Adams, Ruth Dural. 

F. THE FORMING OF THE COVENANT. 

[From the Church Records^ 

At a meeting of the church, November 16, 1781, 

Voted, That Brother Ward and Brother Shepard be a committee to join with 
our reverend pastor to form a covenant for persons to consent to when admitted 
members of this church. 

The committee appointed to draft a covenant met and formed one, which was, 
on the 2d of December, unanimously approved of by the brethren. 

G. THE CHURCH COVENANT. 

You (A. B.) do, in the presence of the great God & of this Christian assem- 
bly, profess your belief of ye holy scriptures ; that they were given by the 
inspiration of God, & are the only sufficient rule of faith & practice. You 
believe the Lord Jesus Christ to be ye only Mediator between God and man, 
ye Lord & Head of his Chh. Penitently confessing your sins of heart & life, 
convinced of your exposedness herefor to ye displeasure of an holy God, but 
relying on his mercy thro' Jesus Christ, you desire humbly to receive & sub- 
mit to him in all those characters & offices with which he is vested, for 
ye benefit of the children of men. You believe ye Holy Spirit of God to be the 
author of every gracious disposition in ye minds of men, ye leader, ye sanctifier, 
& ye comforter of his people. Sensible of the depravity of the human heart, 
your own proneness to sin, & inability to that which is good, you promise to 
seek his divine influence to form you to the temper of the gospel, to make you 
meet for ye inheritance of ye saints in light. You desire to give yourself up to 
God in an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten ;"to be for him & none 
else ; to love, serve, & to obey him forever. You subject yourself to ye dis- 
cipline Christ has established in his Church, & as practised by Gods people in 
this place. You believe ye two ordinances of baptism & ye Lords Supper are 
divine institutions, & that it is ye duty of christians to attend upon them. You 
acknowledge this to be a true church of our Lord Jesus Christ, & promise, 
thro divine aid, to make it your constant endeavor to conform to ye rules of our 
holy religion & ye profession you now make. Thus you solemnly profess and 
promise. I then, ye unworthy servant of our blessed Lord, declare you a mem- 
ber of this Church of Christ, and receive you into our holy fellowship. 

In ye name of ye church, I promise (by ye help of ye Holy Spirit) we will 
endeavor to treat you as a member of ye same body with ours, united with us 
in the faith & hopes of ye gospel. We engage to watch over you with a spirit of 
love & tenderness ; not as seeking occasion against you, but as desirous of pro- 
moting your spiritual eternal good. For this purpose we will endeavor to 
counsel, warn, reprove, & comfort you, as your circumstances require & as our 



154 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

acquaintance with you will admit of. This we do, imploring of our blessed 
Lord that both we & you may be found faithful in his covenant, & may glorify 
him with that holiness which becometh his house forever. 

This covenant was used in this form till May I, 1829, at which time a more 
distinctly formulated creed and an amended covenant were adopted. 

H. THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 

From a record-book found by Deacon Joseph W. Stone, since the celebration, 

we take the following entry : 

Newton, December 4th, 1826. 

After attending the monthly concert for prayer, a number of the inhabitants 
formed themselves into an association for the purpose of aiding the cause of 
Foreign Missions. The meeting was called to order by Henry Craft. Joel 
Fuller was chosen Secretary ; Major Daniel Jackson was chosen to preside ; 
after which it was voted to accept the constitution as printed and sent out by the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; when the Rev. William 
Greenough was chosen President; Major Daniel Jackson, Vice-President ; Joel 
Fuller, Secretary ; Henry Craft, Treasurer. 

Voted, To choose six collectors. 

Voted, That Joseph Stone, Joel Fuller, Moses Keyes, Benjamin Jenison, 
Henry Craft, and Daniel Jackson be the collectors for the ensuing year. 

January 20th, 1827. The Treasurer of this Association paid to the treasury 
of the Auxiliary Society of Boston and vicinity the sum of forty-eight dollars 
and fifty-nine cents. 

Names of the members of the association: William Greenough, Daniel 
Jackson, Henry Craft, Joel Fuller, Benjamin Fuller, Benjamin Jenison, Mary 
Jenison, Martha Jenison, Elisabeth Wilton, Elisabeth Wilton 2d, Nancy 
Ross, Julia Ross, Ester Cook, Catharine Winch, Isaac Wentworth, Widow 
Martha Jackson, Jonathan D. Dix, Solomon Flagg, Nathan Craft, Jr., William 
F. Ward, Joseph Faxon, Sylvanus R. Treat, Nathan Craft 2d, Elias Jenison, 
Leonard Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Ephraim McNamara, John Tucker, Milley 
Cory, Joshua Washburn, Ephraim Jackson 2d, Elisha Seaverns, Moses Keyes, 
Aaron Barker, Nathaniel Fuller, William Alden. 

I. THE FOUR DAYS' MEETING. 

With the same record-book above — kept for other purposes also — are 
accompanying receipts, which show us that the " four days' meetings " were more 
feasts of the soul than of the body. The following is one of several : 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 155 

Newton, November 26, 1833. 
Deacon Joel Fuller, Dr. : 

" To cash paid for refreshments and horse-keeping at the protracted-meeting 

in the Second Church, Newton : 

To cash paid J. Wheeler for 24 lbs. of cheese $216 

To cash paid T. Barber for horse-keeping 1 43 

To cash paid F. Leathe for crackers 1 25 

U 84 

Reed pay of Joel Fuller, Treasurer of the 2nd Church in Newton. 

Joseph Stone. 

J. MR. GREENOUGH'S PROPOSAL FOR COLLEAGUE. 

[From the Parish Records.] 

At a meeting of the West Precinct, on Monday, the 3d day of September, 
1827, Mr. Greenough made the following propositions, which were accepted : 

" 1st. That I retain my present connection with the church and society, and 
preach as often as my health and convenience permit. 

" 2d. That a person be settled agreeable to me. 

" 3d. That my salary cease from the time of his ordination." 

K. ADDRESS TO MR. GREENOUGH. 

The following address was made to Mr. Greenough, agreeable to a vote of 
the parish : 

[From the Parish Records^] 

Newton, March 12, 1829. 
Rev. and Dear Sir : We, the undersigned, being a committee chosen by the 
inhabitants of the West Parish in Newton, for the purpose of addressing you 
and presenting their thanks for your late bountiful liberality toward them, do 
embrace the present opportunity to discharge the pleasant duty ; and while we 
address you in the name and behalf of the people of this society, would call to 
mind the days of our fathers, and remember that particular act of kindness and 
liberality when you presented them with one hundred dollars to relieve them 
from their embarrassment ; and we would remember the small compensation you 
have received for your services while laboring for this people, and the many 
sacrifices you must have made for the support of yourself and family while thus 
engaged in this service ; we would remember the faithfulness, the love, the 
kindness and sympathy which has ever been manifested in all your intercourse 
with the people ; we would remember your kindness and liberality towards the 
poor of the people, and that you have ever manifested a readiness to sympa- 
thize and weep with them that weep, as well as to rejoice with those that rejoice. 
We would never forget that act of kindness and liberality with which you have 
presented us, when feeling the infirmities of age and the whole duties of your 
office too much for your feeble constitution — you have so generously relin- 
quished your whole salary to enable us to support a colleague pastor with you 



156 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

in the sacred office ; and the very liberal donation of forty-eight dollars, to 
defray the expenses of our colleague pastor while preaching as a candidate 
before ordination. In view of these considerations, we would with pleasure 
present to you, sir, the heartfelt gratitude and thanks of the people of this 
society, and assure you that we are satisfied that you have not sought ours, but 
us ; and while discharging the trust reposed in us by the people of this place, we 
would tender to you, sir, our sympathy in the many afflictive dispensations of 
Providence through which you have passed amongst this people, and especially 
in your own beloved family ; and we would likewise congratulate you, sir, that 
you have been spared to see so great a work of grace in this place, and that so 
many of your dear children are found willing to serve the Lord, and that you 
and this people have been so happily united in the choice and settlement of our 
colleague pastor. Permit us to assure you, sir, that it is our prayer to God that 
nothing may transpire to disturb the peace and harmony between you and this 
people which has so universally prevailed during a long ministry, and that the 
remainder of your days may be pleasant, peaceful, and happy. Wishing you 
grace, mercy, and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ, in time and through eternity, 
we subscribe ourselves, your sincere and grateful friends, 

Joel Fuller, \ 

Daniel Jackson, > Committee. 

Henry Craft, ) 



L. FLOOR-PLAN OF THE CHURCH, 

PRIOR TO THE CHANGE IN 1 83 1 ; WITH A LIST OF PEW PROPRIETORS AND 

OCCUPANTS. 

For this plan we are indebted to Dr. Gilbert, who adds the following notes : 
" This house, first built a hundred years ago, was 30 by 40 feet. Long before I 
saw it, it had been turned the side to the road, and twelve feet put on in front, 
making 42 by 40 feet, and a porch of some twelve or fourteen feet added, sup- 
porting a belfry. When I was settled, a bell was bought and hung. Major 
Daniel Jackson gave $400 of his pension-money toward the expense. The 
house had in it fifty windows [counting the two half-circular windows over the 
front doors], and they were so near together as to preclude blinds. The pulpit 
was modern, copied from one at Dedham. The galleries were very wide and 
steep. When I stood up in the pulpit, I could not see the heads of some under 
the gallery. The Benediction reached the hearer by an inverted parabola." 



Mill 



10 



11 



19 


20 


18 


21 


17 


22 


16 


23 


15 


24 



12 



13 



14 



49 



48 



47 



46 



45 



29 


30 


28 


31 


27 


32 


26 


33 


25 


34 



44 



43 



42 



41 



40 



39 



38 



35 



36 



37 



Pastor's Pew. 

Mr. Wentworth. 

Nathan Park. 

James Fuller. 

Joshua Washburn. 

Capt. Stimson. 

Mrs. Elisabeth Starr. 

J. D. Dix. 

Wm. F. Ward. 
[Enoch Smith. 
j William Smith. 

Ephraim Jackson. 

William Alden. 

Solomon Flagg. 



-.a J Dea. Eddy. 
' \J. Jackson. 

17. Jona. Upham. 

18. Capt. Ezra Fuller. 

19. Dea. Joel Fuller. 

20. Poor-house People, 
oi J Joseph Stone. 

' i Moses Keyes. 
22. Nathaniel Fuller. 
0Q < Mr. Bigelow. 
^•$Eli Sawyer. 

24. Jeremiah Allen. 

25. Dr. Austin. 

26. Joel Houghton. 



27. William Greenough. 

28. Maj. D. Jackson, 
no $ Elisha Seaverns. 
**' \ Mrs. Ware. 

on \ Mrs. Corey. 
dU " \ Jonas Smith. 

31. Rufus Pratt. 

32. Henry Craft. 

33. E. McNamara. 

34. Isaac Frost. 
o e S A. Barker. 
* 5 -$E. Smith. 

^ i Capt. Wales. 

$ Solomon Houghton. 



37. William Adams. 

38. $ Mr. Seth Davis. 
39. 1 and his Boys. 

40. Thos. Houghton. 

41. Ben. Jenison. 

42. Adolphus Smith. 

43. Joseph Faxon. 

44. Mrs. Cooper. 

45. Nathan Craft, Jr. 

46. John Jenison. 

47. Catharine Winch. 
^ S J. D. Dix. 

*°- i Micah Rutter. 
49. George Stearns. 



Floor Plan of the Church, prior to the change in 1831 
Pew Proprietors and Occupants. 



with a List of 



158 



Second Congregational Churchy Newton. 



M. SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PRESENT CHURCH BUILDING. 
{From the Parish Records^ 

Names of subscribers to the fund to build the present church edifice, each 
share representing one hundred dollars : 



Shares. 

• 3 



Joel Fuller . . . 
Joseph Stone ... 2 

Nathaniel Fuller . . 3 

Wm. P. Houghton . \\ 

Samuel Warren . . 1 

Adolphus Smith . . 2 

Chester Judson . . 2$ 

Aaron Barker . . . \\ 

Gustavus Fuller . . \ 

Moses P. Greenleaf . \\ 

Sarah Flagg . . . 1 

Nathan Craft, Jr. . . z\ 

Joshua Washburn . 1 

Elisabeth Starr . . 1 

Elias Jenison . . . 1 

Jon. Day Dix, Jr. . 1 

Isaac Frost . . . . 1 

James P. Snow . . 1 

Jonathan D. Dix . . 1 

William Flagg . . 1 

William Jackson . . 1 



Samuel F. Dix 
Lyman Gilbert 
E. H. Derby 
C. C. Cook . 
A. G. Morton 
Milo Lucas . 
George Porter 
Aaron Barker, Jr. 
Albert Sanderson 
Hiram Barker . . 
Henry A. Barker . 
Jeremiah Allen . 
O. F. Woodford . 
Horace Mann . . 
Charles D. Pigeon 
J. J. Walworth . 
Jon. E. Woodbridge 
William F. Ward 
W. H. Hartwell . 
A Friend . . . 
Daniel B. Durand 

Total, 69^ shares 



Shares. 
I 



2 

I 
\ 
\ 

I 
I 

1 

i 
1 

1 

ii 
1 
1 
1 

1 



J. L. Partridge 
A. S. Johnson . 
Elisha Ware . 
Jos. S. Clark . 
Caleb S. Faxon 
A. Smith . . . 
A. H. Ward . 
William B. Lowell 
John W. Rollins 
John C. Jones . 
Sarah Baxter . 
Henry Jones . 
J. W. Plimpton 

Adaitional. 

J. J. Walworth 
Nathaniel Fuller 
Adolphus Smith 
Samuel Warren 
J. P. Snow . . 



Shares. 
. I 



O. MR. GILBERT'S ORDINATION. 

The public services at the ordination of Mr. Lyman Gilbert were as follows : 
Introductory prayer, Rev. I. R. Barbour, of Byfield; sermon, Rev. Warren 
Fay, D.D., of Charlestown; ordaining prayer, Rev. Reuben Puffer, D.D., of 
Berlin; charge to the pastor, Rev. William Greenough, senior pastor; right 
hand of fellowship, Rev. James Bates, of Newton Centre; address to the 
people, Rev. William Jenks, D.D., of Boston; concluding prayer, Rev. Thomas 
Noyes, of Needham. 

P. MR. DRUMMOND'S ORDINATION. 

The public services at the ordination of Mr. J. P. Drummond were as 
follows : Invocation and reading of the Scriptures, Rev. D. L. Furber, of New- 
ton Centre ; sermon, Rev. E. A. Park, D.D., of Andover ; ordaining prayer, Rev. 
I. P. Langworthy, of Chelsea; charge to the pastor, Rev. E. N. Kirk, D.D., of 



of V 



■ 



■ 
ner; be;, 



. 






French ro< 






i 
of • 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 159 

Boston ; right hand of fellowship, Rev. R. T. Robinson, of Winchester ; address 
to the people, Rev. A. L. Stone, of Boston ; concluding prayer, Rev. R. Foster, 
of Waltham ; benediction, by the pastor. 

Q. REV. MR. LITTLE'S INSTALLATION. 

The public services at the installation of Rev. George B. Little were as 
follows : Invocation and reading of Scriptures, Rev. E. W. Clark, of Auburn- 
dale ; sermon, Professor Austin Phelps, of Andover ; installing prayer, Rev. J. 
W. Alvord, of Boston; charge to the pastor, Rev. D. L. Furber, of Newton 
Centre ; right hand of fellowship, Rev. J. O. Means, of Roxbury ; charge to the 
people, Rev. G. W. Field, of Boston; concluding prayer, Rev. S. R. Dennen, 
of Watertown; benediction, by the pastor. 

R. REV. MR. PATRICK'S INSTALLATION. 

The public services at the installation of Rev. H. J. Patrick were as follows : 
Invocation, Rev. S. R. Dennen, of Watertown; reading of Scriptures, Rev R. 
G. Greene, of Brighton; introductory prayer, Rev. D. L. Furber, of Newton 
Centre ; sermon, Professor Austin Phelps, of Andover ; installing prayer, Rev. 
D. R. Cady, of West Cambridge ; charge to the pastor, Rev. R. T. Robinson, of 
Winchester ; right hand of fellowship, Rev. J. M. Manning, of the Old South 
Church, Boston ; address to the people, Rev. J. W. Wellman, of Newton Cor- 
ner ; benediction, by the pastor. 

Rev. Henry Johnson Patrick was born in Warren, Mass., September 20, 1827 ; 
graduated at Amherst College in 1848, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 
1853 ; was ordained at Bedford, Mass., November 16, 1854, and dismissed in 
August, i860; installed at West Newton September 26, i860. 

S. THE BAXTER PARSONAGE. 

At the annual meeting of the church, November 4, 1863, a communication 
was received from the executors of the will of the late Miss Sarah Baxter, con- 
taining the twelfth article of her will, in which she bequeaths to this church 
a legacy of $5,000, with conditions, for the purpose of securing the erection of a 
parsonage for the pastor of this church. 

The church accepted the legacy, and at a meeting held May 22, 1865, legally 
transferred the income and charge of the property to the parish. 

At a meeting of the parish held March 26, 1866, a building committee were 
appointed, of the following persons : Messrs. Joseph Walker, S. F. Dix, Ira 
Hunter, Lawson Valentine, and Milo Lucas. Mr. Samuel Chapman, of West 
Newton, was selected as architect and builder, to whom great credit was due for 
the faithful and conscientious fulfillment of the contract, even at personal loss. 
The house was erected on a lot containing 20,000 square feet, at the corner of 
Winthrop and Putnam Streets. It is a building of two stories, with attic and 
French roof, delightfully situated upon an eminence overlooking the village and 
the surrounding towns. The plan of the house is simple, with some points of 



160 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

peculiar excellence for use as a parsonage, as will be seen by the accompanying 
drawings. The whole house may be thrown together, so that large parish 
assemblies will not be uncomfortably crowded. Owing to the increased price 
of labor and material, the cost of the house was greater than was anticipated — 
not far from $10,000, the land costing $1,000. The house was completed early 
in 1867, and on the evening of February 20th of that year it was formally 
opened with appropriate services. 

A statement was made by Messrs. Walker and Dix, of the building com- 
mittee, after which addresses were made by Dr. I. N. Tarbox and the pastor of 
the church, Rev. H. J. Patrick ; Rev. J. W. Wellman, of Newton Corner, led in 
the prayer of dedication ; and the following hymn, written for the occasion by 
Dr. Tarbox, was sung : 

THE PROPHET'S CHAMBER. 

When once in Israel's evil day, 

Beneath the monarch's wrathful frown, 

No place whereon his head to lay, 
Elisha wandered up and down, 

A godly woman spake, and said : 

" Let us a little chamber make, 
Fit it with table and a bed, 

And do it for the prophet's sake. 

" Let us add candlestick and chair, 

That when the wanderer walks abroad 
He may come in, and we may share 
The presence of the man of God." 

A prophet's chamber neat and fair 

Is here as in the ancient days ; 
We hallow it with voice of prayer, 

We hallow it with grateful praise. 

Peace to this consecrated home ! 

May truth these sacred courts adorn ! 
And hence may Christ's pure message come 

To generations yet unborn. 

— Congregational Quarterly, January, 186S. 




The above is a plan of the first and second stories of the Baxter Parsonage, West Newton. 
The only change which was made in the construction was in the position of the kitchen and dining- 
room ; they exchanged places. 

First Story. 

P.P. Parlors. H.H. Halls. R. Reception-room. PO. Portico. 

S. Study. D. Dining-room. K. Kitchen. PA. Piazza. 

Second Story. 
C. Chambers. B. Bath-room. 



1 62 Second Congregational Church, Newton. 

T. THE WEEKLY OFFERING. 

At a parish meeting held March 28, 1878, it was voted, That the society 
depend on weekly offerings, as an experiment, for the current year, for the pay- 
ment of its accruing expenses. 

At a parish meeting held March 5, 1879, ft was voted, To continue the same 
method as last year for raising money to meet the expenses of the society the 
ensuing year. 

At a parish meeting held January 14, 1880, it was voted unanimously, To 
continue under the free-seat system the same method as last year for raising 
money to meet the expenses of the society. 

The same vote was passed January 12, 1881. 

U. THE LAST DAY OF MR. LITTLE'S PASTORAL WORK. 

Extract from a letter of Mrs. Little : 

"In looking over manuscript notes relating to Mr. Little's last illness, I find 
a paragraph interesting to me as indicating the deep, warm sympathy he always 
felt for his people in times of trial. I think he was remarkable for this. I 
recall vividly his frequent expressions of tender pity and sympathy for all suffer- 
ing and afflicted persons in his own parish and beyond it. 

" I remember going with him to see a poor Irishman, a Catholic, who was 
dying of consumption. I remember how kindly and sympathizingly he con- 
versed with the poor man and his wife, and, before leaving, gave them a copy 
of the Douay version of the Bible. The paragraph to which I allude is as 
follows : 'On Friday, January 6, i860, he made his last calls in the parish. He 
called in the morning to see Mr. T., who was failing fast of consumption. He 
was to leave for the South in the afternoon. Mr. Little prayed with the family. 
It was his last prayer with the sick and afflicted among his people. He was full 
of sympathy for the invalid father and his poor wife and little children, and 
talked much about them all on his return. He said, " It is so sad, so sad! Poor 
fellow ! " In the afternoon he called on Mrs. A., who had met with an accident 
This was his last call. That night he was seized with hemorrhage from the 
lungs.' " 

It should be added, that of the family with whom he prayed for the last time, 
father, mother, husband, wife, have all gone to their heavenly home — all follow- 
ing him ; and the good woman honored with the last call from him as pastor has 
also gone to the same blessed companionship; while "the little children" have 
grown to womanhood. 

V. 3fn ftflemoriam* 

The following additional names will recall a few of those to whom this 
church is indebted for its support and prosperity during the last half of the 
century : 

Joseph Stone. A deacon and for forty-six years a member of the church ; a 
man noted for his strong attachment to the distinguishing doctrines of the 
gospel; died October 8, 1S73, eighty-three years of age. 



One Hundredth Anniversary. 163 

Adolphus Smith. For fifty-two years a member of the church ; seldom absent 
from the meetings of the parish, and especially interested in efforts to advance 
the cause of temperance ; died January 6, 1879, aged eighty-one years. 

Samuel F. Dix. A member of the church forty-four years, a deacon twenty- 
one years ; a man sound in the faith, exemplary in life, loyal to the interests of 
the church, and faithful in attendance and support of its meetings; a great 
sufferer for many months before his death, but patient unto the end ; died May 
25, 1876, aged sixty-five years. 

J. H. Brown, M.D. The kind and beloved physician ; fourteen years a mem- 
ber of the church, and much of the time a member of both the church and 
parish committees ; willing to devote himself, at personal sacrifice, to the welfare 
of the church ; in the strength of his Christian character, and the consistency of 
his example, a "pillar" indeed; died, suddenly, March 19, 1865, a g e d fifty-three 
years. 

I. S. Withington. A member of the Old South Church, Boston, yet as much 
interested in this church as though a member of it ; the leader of the congrega- 
tional singing from the time of its adoption, and enthusiastic in his devotion to 
this service ; a man of tender, sympathetic spirit ; a genuine friend of his 
pastor ; died December 22, 1867, aged sixty-eight years. 

Ira Hunter. Received into the church, by profession, May 2, 1858, under the 
ministry of Mr. Drummond ; was an active and liberal supporter of the parish, 
and much interested in its prosperity, serving upon important committees ; 
highly esteemed and respected in the community ; died, suddenly, pn the 8th of 
March, 1868, aged fifty-two years. 

Charles Stone. Son of Deacon Joseph Stone ; united with the church, by 
letter, January 6, 1850; a teacher in the Sabbath school; a regular attendant at 
the weekly prayer-meeting ; quiet and unobtrusive in his service, edifying in his 
prayers, and felt to be a power in his even and consistent life ; he died, after a 
short sickness, January 5, 1869, at forty-eight years of age. 

Rev. Joseph H. Patrick. A graduate of Brown University in 18 17 ; pastor at 
Barrington, R. I., Greenwich, Mass., and South Wellfleet, Mass., successively; 
father of the present pastor ; he came to spend his last days with him in 1861 ; 
united with the church November I, 1867, and manifested great interest in it, 
in his faithful attendance upon and love for the house of God and the place of 
prayer ; died of paralysis June 20, 1870, at seventy-eight years of age. 

Many others, earlier in the century, might be named, and " honorable women 
not a few " are worthy of mention ; but our space forbids. Their record is on 
high, and " their works do follow them." 



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